The Welcome / Home screen

The Welcome / Home Screen contains the basic buttons on which a user can click in order to get access to the basic settings that are required to run a basic test. There is a lot more to Login VSI than just these settings. This article will explain every setting within Login VSI. But first, the Welcome / Home Screen settings. (The settings within each tab will be explained in detail later on).

1. AD Setup

This button will send you directly to the AD setup location which is located under ‘Infrastructure > ad setup’. In this tab you can setup your AD of the environment that will be used.

2. Add Launchers

This button will send you to the launcher tab located under ‘Infrastructure > launcher’. In this tab you can execute the ‘add launcher’ wizard.

3. Add Data Servers

This button will send you to the data servers tab located under ‘Infrastructure > data servers’. Here you can add or remove different data servers.

4. Configure Scenario

This button will send you to the scenario tab located under ‘test setup > scenario’. In this tab you can chose with how many phases and what kind of workload you want to test your environment with.

5. Configure Connection

This will send you to the ‘test setup > connection’ tab. This page is used to configure the connection from the launchers to the target environment.

6. Start Test

Clicking this button you will be sent to the ‘start test’ tab. From here out you can start a test.

Green Ribbon Buttons

We’ll start with the buttons on the found in the green ribbon located in the bottom of the window. We’ll start with the analyzer button and go to the right from there.

Analyzer

Pressing this button you will start the Login VSI Analyzer. With this application you can open and view the results of your tests and compare them.

Settings

This button opens the following window. In this window there are several options and settings.

• At the first check-box you can decide whether or not to enable the splash screen when you start Login VSI.
• The second check-box gives you the option to disable or enable the welcome screen in the wizards.
• The VSIshare text-box shows the location of the VSI share. This can be changed manually or by clicking the browse button. Please always use a UNC path. Please note: The logon script will also need to be updated with a new VSIshare location. The logon script can be found at %logonserver%\netlogon.
• The license text-box shows the location of the license file. This can be changed manually or by clicking the browse button. Please always use a UNC path.
• The profiles location text-box shows the location of the profiles. These are the custom profiles which a user can make of the Login VSI settings. This can be changed manually or by clicking the browse button. Please always use a UNC path.
• The launcher check interval-box is used to set the interval in seconds between launcher ready checks
• The ‘Management Console language’ dropdown sets the language for the Management Console. Currently it only supports English.
• The text underneath the ‘Management Console language’ option is the license information that is used by the MMC.

Help

This button provides you with links that are useful for LoginVSI. The links provided will send you to our company / product website, our documentation page, and the license request location.

Enter Benchmark Mode

Enables the benchmark mode within Login VSI. Benchmark mode is a restricted test mode. Some settings which are available within the normal mode of Login VSI are now disabled. This is done to create a default test environment in which users can compare test results with each other. If this was not the case, users / vendors could change settings that would benefit their set-up and the test results would be corrupted, and so the comparison would be invalid. The list you see below contains all the setting that are disabled in the benchmark mode. Keep in mind that all these settings will be described later on in this article.

This feature makes sure all vendors test with the same Login VSI settings applied to their environment, allowing for an easier comparison of whitepapers. Its feature helps the enterprise world when it is executed by the vendors.

List of disabled (benchmark) settings:

Workload > settings:

Login VSI logon processor

• Import Microsoft Office registry – enabled
• Copy PST file – enabled
• Map user home – enabled
• Map group drive – enabled
• Set Freemind FTA – enabled

Workload

• Verify runtime files at start - enabled
• Enable engine debugging – disabled
• Enable workload debugging – disabled
• PDF printer – enabled
• Pause hotkey – {Pause}
• Maximum loops – 99999
• Logoff action – shutdown /I
• User home drive – H:
• Group drive – G:
• Logoff session at – segment
• Segments per logfile – 20
• Random initial wait – 5
• Log application start times – enabled
• Log loop length times – disabled
• Log random file copy times – disabled
• Log segment length times – disabled
• IE version – Auto
• IE video option – Auto

Progress bar

• Progress bar shadow – enabled
• Progress bar display – Normal

Test setup > scenario

• Workload – Medium
• Workload Mash up – Disabled

Buttons bottom of screen in scenario

• Base phase – disabled
• Move up – disabled
• Move down – disabled
• Add phase – disabled
• Insert phase – disabled
• Delete phase – disabled

Save profile

Saves the current settings to a file to the default save location \\%VSI_Share%\_VSI_Profiles\yourprofilename.

Load profile

Shows a drop-down menu with all the available profiles in the default \\%VSI_Share%\_VSI_Profiles\yourprofilename location.

Exit

With this button you exit the MMC (Management Console) without a prompt.

Infrastructure

The infrastructure tab contains all the information about the Login VSI infrastructure. Here you can configure your A.D. (Active Directory) users, launcher computers, data servers and more.

A.D. Setup

Login VSI prefers an A.D. to setting properly. This is because of the automated user creation and the easy implementation of the policies and logon script.

Base OU

This is the location of the base OU under which the AD setup will create the Login VSI OU structure. In this example it is in the root of the dev.loginvsi.com domain so “DC=dev,DC=loginvsi,DC=com”. Login VSI auto detects what your current domain is. By pressing the ‘browse’ button you are able to find and select your preferred OU location.

Username

This is the default LoginVSI username, the username will contain a number at the end of the username that will be auto incremented starting at 1.

Password

This sets the default password for all the test users. The default password set by Login VSI is “Password!”.

Domain

This is the domain wherein the AD objects should be created. This is normally on autodetect, although by unchecking the checkbox above de text-box you can manually enter the preferred domain.

VSIshare

This is used in the logon scripts that are created for the LoginVSI users. It is used to point to the right location of the startup scripts for either the Launcher or Target.

Number of users

This contains the amount of accounts you want to create in the A.D.

Formatting Length

The formatting length is the amount of numbers that will be placed next to the username. For instance, if left default, 1, the usernames will be formatted as LoginVSI1, LoginVSI2 .. LoginVSI99, LoginVSI100 etc. If the formatting length is set to 2 the usernames will be: LoginVSI01, LoginVSI02 .. LoginVSI99, LoginVSI100 and so on. You can go as high as 9, if this is configured the usernames will be: LoginVSI00000001, LoginVSI000000002 .. LoginVSI000000099, LoginVSI000000100 and so on.

Launcher user

Here you can configure the login profile for the launchers. Its default name is “Launcher-v4”.

Launcher password

Here you can configure the password that is used for the launchers. The default password is “Password!”.

Buttons

At the bottom of the window there are 2 buttons. One of them called ‘save to ZIP’ and the other ‘save to PS1’.

Save to ZIP

The save as ZIP function saves the AD configuration in a zipped file. This includes the PS1 file and all the ADM files that are needed by the PS1 file to execute the AD settings. Instead of the PS1 file uses the file from the VSIShare it has everything locally. This is used when the AD machine has no permissions or is in a different domain then the VSIshare is.

Save to PS1

The Save to PS1 button saves the configuration to a Powershell script. The Powershell script contains all the configurations needed to create the users, OU, groups, GPO’s and logonscript location. All the settings in this script are based on the settings entered in the configuration found in “Infrastructure > AD setup” This script needs to run with Administrator / Domain Administrator rights in order to do its job properly.

Launchers

In this segment the launchers are added and configured. With the ‘Add launcher’ button on the bottom of the window a wizard will start which will allow you to add new launchers to the test setup. After adding a launcher the main Launcher page will be discussed.

The main Launcher page

The main launcher page contains a list of all the added launchers. You can freely edit the launchers Capacity, if they are enabled and you can add a note. If you right-click in on a Launcher machine you see a dropdown menu. This menu allows you to:

Add Launcher

Adding a new launcher to the setup.

Remove Launcher

Remove the selected launcher(s).

MSTSC-Admin

This starts an Administrator authorized remote desktop session to the selected launcher machine.

MSTSC

This starts a remote desktop session to the selected launcher machine.

Ping

Ping the selected launcher machine.

Reboot

Remote reboot the selected launcher machine.

Example Script Multi

You can add own custom scripts / cmd’s / exe’s etc. This script is just an example. If you want to add a new function you need to place the file in the “\\%VSI_Share%\_VSI_ManagementConsole\_VSI_CustomExtension”

Reboot Multi Remote reboot of all the launcher machines.

Adding a launcher

Once the button is pressed the following window will appear (unless the check-box “Disable all welcome screens” is enabled in the settings or at the bottom of this window).

The next window gives you the option to add a single machine or a batch of machines.

Single Machine

First there will be an explanation about using the ‘Single machine’ option. Once the ‘Single machine’ option is chosen the next window will allow you to set a new set of configurations.

Name

The name is the hostname, FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) or IP address of the launcher machine. You can check this on the physical machine by using a CMD-box and typing ‘hostname’ in the command prompt and then pressing enter. Or typing IPconfig in a CMD-box for the IP address. Or ping the Launcher on hostname or IP for the correct FQDN name.

Maximum capacity

The maximum capacity sets the maximum amount of launched sessions per physical device. The default setting is 50 but for every type of connection there is a different recommended maximum. For more information please see our documentation: http://www.loginvsi.com/documentation/index.php?title=Connectors_reference#Requirements

Enabled

The ‘enabled’ check-box sets the launcher on enabled (checked) or disabled (un-checked).

Next Window When pressing next a small overview will be shown containing all the information that was entered in the wizard.

Batch entry

The batch entry allows a user to add an array of physical launcher machines to the test-setup. Please note that all the machines need to have the same name, but not the same number behind the name. Example: Computer1, Computer2 etc. There are two ways of adding launchers in batch mode, advanced and normal mode.

Normal Mode

Host Name

The name is the 'hostname of the launcher machine. You can check this on the physical machine by using a CMD-box and typing ‘hostname’ in the command prompt and then pressing enter.

How many launchers would you like to add?

Fill in the amount of launchers you wish to add. The launcher names will be "Hostname+number" for example Launcher1, Launcher2, Launcher3... etc.

Advanced Button

Pressing the advanced button will open the advanced view for adding a launcher.

Advanced Mode

Host Name

The name is the 'hostname of the launcher machine. You can check this on the physical machine by using a CMD-box and typing ‘hostname’ in the command prompt and then pressing enter.

Start number

This is where the start number of the launcher machines is configured. For example you want a specific range of machines starting from 10. Then you enter 10 in this text-box and 10 in the ‘Count’ text-box.

Increment

The increment setting allows you to place an increment number for the launcher machines. So if you do an increment of 1 you only get even numbered machines.

Count

Count determines the amount of machines that are added when this wizard is finished.

Maximum Capacity

The maximum capacity sets the maximum amount of launched sessions per physical device. The default setting is 50 but for every type of connection there is a different recommended maximum. For more information please see our documentation: http://www.loginvsi.com/documentation/index.php?title=Connectors_reference#Requirements

Formatting length

The formatting length is the amount of numbers that will be placed next to the machine name. For instance, if left default, 1, the machine name will be formatted as “%machine name %#” whereas the machine name is the name configured in the option above ‘Name’ and the ‘#’ is a number. So for example the machine names will be: testmachine1, testmachine2 .. testmachine99, testmachine100 etc. If the formatting length is set to 2 the machine names will be: testmachine01, testmachine02 .. LoginVSI99, testmachine100 and so on. For no. 3 its testmachine001, testmachine002 .. testmachine099, testmachine100. With every new number i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4 an extra number slot appears. You can go as high as 9, if 9 is configured the machine names will be: testmachine00000001, testmachine000000002 .. testmachine000000099, testmachine000000100 and so on.

Enabled This check-box sets the launchers on enabled (checked) or disabled (un-checked). When next is clicked a modify screen is shown. Here you can change the capacity of each launcher machine and enable or disable a launcher machine.

This next view shows a review of the added launcher machines.(the review page is the same as this one except you cannot enable or disable a launcher)

Data servers

This page allows you set-up several data servers where your test machines can connect to. A data server is used by the test machines to access the data needed to carry out the specified workload. For example, a workload uses a network-located word document, this document is found on the data server. A data server always points to the “\\%Servername%\%VSIshare%\_VSI_Content” directory and must be an UNC path.

By default the location of the original Login VSI installation is the primary data server, this is fine for small scale tests but not recommended for large scale tests. It all depends on the capacity of the server that houses the share. We recommend that during a large scale test several data servers are configured.

Adding a data server is done by right clicking the data server window and clicking on ‘Add Data Server’ or you can use the button located at the bottom of the window. When the add button (or Add Data Server setting) is pressed a new data server is added. The settings are copied from the default settings.

To configure the new data server simply click on the name to change the name of the data server or click on the UNC path to change the UNC path of the data server. At last there is a checkbox which allows you to enable (check the check-box) or to disable (un-check the checkbox) the data server.

To remove a data server just select the data server you want to remove and click the ‘remove’ button at the bottom of the window or right click in the data server window and click on ‘Remove Data Server’. In a list of different data servers login VSI will automatically arrange the workload on the different servers.

Web servers

On the web server page webservers can be added and removed. Webservers are the servers that manage the websites that are used by the test machines during their workload. You can either add a UNC server path or choose for an actual webserver location a.k.a. “Http://” location.

Adding a webserver is done by right clicking the web servers window and clicking on ‘Add Webserver’ or you can use the button located at the bottom of the window.

When the add button (or Add Webserver setting) is pressed a new data server is added. The settings are copied from the default settings.

To configure the new webserver simply click on the name to change the name of the webserver or click on the UNC path to change the UNC path of the webserver. At last there is a checkbox which allows you to enable (check the check-box) or to disable (un-check the checkbox) the webserver.

To remove a webserver just select the webserver you want to remove and click the ‘remove’ button at the bottom of the window or right click in the web servers window and click on ‘Remove Webserver’.

Please note: If you are running tests on an environment that runs Internet Explorer 8 or lower then you will have to configure a HTTP path. Internet Explorer 8 and below has no support for HTML5 to play videos. The video player will fall back to Flash for videos on Internet Explorer 8 or below. However flash does not support streaming video from an UNC path due to security concerns. A work around for this issue is to use a HTTP instead. To be able to do this a IIS server needs to be set up. See IIS configuration

Content Library

The content library gives you an overview of the amount of usable documents there are within Login VSI. When you have not installed the Pro Library there are less documents available than when you have installed the Pro Library (for more information please see: http://www.loginvsi.com/documentation/index.php?title=Login_VSI_Pro_Library. The reason for the different amount of documents is that when you have the Trial license there is a max (20) on the amount of users that are available for testing, when you have a pro license it depends on your contract with Login VSI. Please note: Login VSI assigns a session to a data server in a round robin fashion

Workload

The workload section contains the settings for the workloads, this is the most detailed part of Login VSI. A few of these settings were discussed during the benchmark mode step, but the exact detail of every setting was not described. In this section we will talk a bit more extensive about every setting.

Settings

The options tab contains all the variables necessary to customize different aspects of the workload and the Login VSI application. Use the reset button to quickly reset all the settings back to default, if required.

Pause hotkey

By default, this is set to {Pause} which points to the Pause | break button on your keyboard. What this does is if you want a session to pause its run you open that session an press the pause | break button. This will pause the workload on that session. This key can be changed to any key you want.

Mashup behavior

Lets the user decide how the mashup is configured. There are two options "Calculated" and "Random". The Calculated option will select the workload in a classic way, user 1 runs workload 1, user 2 runs workload 2, user 3 runs workload 1 etc. The Random option will choose a random workload from the mash-up workload pool for each session.

Maximum loops

Set the amount of maximum loops. To explain loops we need to know how a workload works. A workload is split in to segments, and the segments are split in to timers. If session completes all the timers and segments it has completed one loop, depending on your settings the session will start a second run of the workload thus creating the second loop. As the default setting shows the maximum amount of loops is 99.999.

Segment behavior

Lets the user decide how the segments are determined. There is a choice of 3 options "Calculated", "Fixed" and "Random". The Calculated option means that the first user runs segment 1, user 2 runs segment 2 ... user 5 runs segment 1 etc. The Fixed option means that all sessions will start from Segment 1. The Random function will randomize the segment start number of each session.

SBC timer detection

This function enables the SBC timers. This is designed for SBC / XenApp / RDS environments. It will let the session decide if it will run a timer, this is done to reduce CPU load on the SBC Machine. This function is not enabled by default.

PDF printer

PDF printer allows you to enable or disable the PDF print setting within the workload. If your (custom) workload does not use a PDF printer then it’s no use enabling this setting.

Zip location

Allows a user to customize the location of the ZIP actions during the timer. This can be used when a specific storage is preferred to be used during the test.

Initialization

Verify runtime files at start

Checks if all the files, needed by VSI, have been copied.

Random initial wait

Is used before a workload begins its first loop. The workload will randomly select a number ranging from 1 – 5 (or something different depending on what the user entered) and waits this amount of seconds before beginning the first loop. This setting was created to start every session at a different moment.

Video

Disable video viewing

Disable the videos in the workloads, instead the workload will open a website. This can be used if its not preferred to run videos during the test.

IE video option

Within a workload there is a possibility that you want video’s to run in Internet Explorer. With this setting you can configure which way the video player communicates in Internet Explorer. You can choose from auto (default), HTML5 and Flash. Keep in mind that HTML 5 is only supported from Internet Explorer 9 and up.

Languages and versions

Windows language

For Login VSI to work correctly and efficiently it needs to know what language your operating system is. A few commands used by Login VSI are based on the language setting of the OS so it’s imperative that this is correctly configured.

IE version

Select the version of Internet Explorer that is used on the test VM’s. You can select the Internet Explorer versions 7 through 11 and Auto. Auto will automatically detect which version you have.

Microsoft Office version In this dropdown menu you can select the office version you need, you can choose from Office 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016.

Microsoft Office language

For Login VSI to work correctly and efficiently it needs to know what language your Office is. A few commands used by Login VSI are based on the language setting of Office so it’s imperative that this is correctly configured.

Microsoft Office print sequence

The print sequence is modifiable but linked to the office version. The reason for this is that (almost) every office has a different way of opening the right print window. For example in office 2003 its ‘Ctrl+P’ but in 2013 its ‘Alt, F, P, P’ (this differs with the different languages of Office).

Logging

Log application start times

Logs the amount of time it takes for an application to start.

Log shell execute times

Logs the amount of time it takes for a shell execute to start.

Log web start execute times

Logs the amount of time it takes for a website to load.

Log loop length times

Logs the time it takes for a loop to fully run.

Log random file copy times

Logs the time it takes for a random file copy procedure to finish.

Log segment length times

Logs the amount of time it takes to complete each segment

Segments per logfile

Determines how many log lines can be created before a new logfile is created. This is used when a user want to check the logs when the test is still running. We do NOT recommend opening files that are being used by the current running test.

Debug

Enable engine debugging

If you run into problems with your test you can enable debug mode for the engine. This will create extra logs that are useful for troubleshooting. These logs are found in the “\\%VSI_Share\_VSI_Logfiles folder”.

Note: The original orange color of the status bar within a workload will turn red to indicate that debugging is enabled.

Enable workload debugging

If you run into problems with your test you can enable debug mode for the workload. This will create extra logs that are useful for troubleshooting. These logs are found in the “\\%VSI_Share\_VSI_Logfiles folder”.

Note: The original orange color of the status bar within a workload will turn red to indicate that debugging is enabled.

Timeout

Application start timeout

This is the amount of time Login VSI waits until the requested application starts. If the application is not found before the end of the timer it will generate an application timeout (which means the application did not start, or not on time).

Application focus timeout

Almost the same as the application start timeout. The difference is that it waits until the requested application is focused so the workload can proceed with the next step. If it reaches its time out it will generate an error, with the message that the application cannot be focused.

Timer timeout

Sets the amount of time Login VSI waits for the timer to respond. The way it works is when you look in to a workload you can see that the workload has 'Timer' moments in which the timer measures the load of the system. If for some reason the timer doesn’t work it will generate an error. With this option you can change how long it waits before giving an error, so basically the timer fails to start / finish.

ShellExecuteWait timeout

Similar to the other timeouts, except this one refers to the amount of time the ShellExecuteWait workload action waits until the requested action starts.

Options

The options tab contains all the variables necessary to customize different aspects of the workload and the Login VSI application. Use the reset button to quickly reset all the settings back to default.

Pre-test

Enable Session Monitor

This function is still in beta phase. Disabling this function will let you run tests without a session monitor. As a user you are free to try this out, but since it is still in beta phase strange results can happen.

Launcher Agent

Run Agent in loop

Enabling this check box will let the agent run in a loop. This means when a test is completed the agent will reset itself and wait for the next test.

LauncherHeartBeat

When doing a large scale test (5000 users and higher) we recommend enabling this feature. This feature will reduce Launcher polling interval of the launchers to reduce network traffic during tests.

Drive mapping

Map user home

This setting will allow a user to enable or disable the simulated home drive for all the test users. More information about the home drive will be found at the ‘User Home drive’ setting.

User home drive

Gives a user the option of selecting the Letter of the home drive that Login VSI uses. The user home drive is used by Login VSI to create a virtual drive substitute that’s redirected to the %temp% folder of the machine. When the workload opens a file i.e. a docx file, that file is located on the home drive.

Map group drive

This setting will allow a user to enable or disable the simulated group for all the test users. More information about the group drive will be found at the ‘Group drive’ setting.

Group drive

Gives a user the option of selecting the Letter of the group drive that Login VSI uses. The user home drive is used by Login VSI to create a virtual drive substitute that’s redirected to the VSI Share. This drive is used for content used by the workload.

Program preparation

Import Microsoft Office registry

This setting allows you to decide whether or not you want Login VSI to import the office registry keys. The option origins from the fact that some environments do not use Office so adding registry keys is not necessary. Another reason not to use this is when you have an environment that does not allow users to change the registry. If this is the case a work-around should be made in order to set the right registry keys.

Copy .pst file

The PST file needed to simulate Outlook. This file contains dummy emails and an environment in which we can simulate Outlook users. Again some environments do not use Outlook, therefore, it’s not needed to copy this file. Or an environment uses its own exchange server to simulate the users.

Set Freemind file type association

What this does is create the file association () to Freemind. So when you start Freemind (which is used in the default workloads) files are linked to Freemind. This allows you to start the application by clicking on the file you want to use. Warning: When you use an application virtualization, i.e. VMware ThinApp & Citrix Streaming or you use a work space virtualization platform, like RES you MUST disable this setting, or else the workload will not be able to work properly.

Engine

Engine startup

Specifies the method that the engine starts. There are three options: Shell, Chained and Detect. The Shell method starts Login VSI using the run once registry keys while Chained starts Login VSI using only the logon script. The default setting is Shell, this method will run the logon scripts and places a run-once registry key that is triggered once the Windows Shell is loaded, when triggered VSI.exe is executed and the workload will start. The Chained setting will run the logon scripts and, when the logon script is finished, VSI.exe will start immediately. Even though some aspects of Windows are not yet loaded. This is used when asynchronous logging has been configured or if there are not enough permissions that allows Login VSI to place the registry keys. The Detect setting automatically detects if the session needs a Shell or a Chained startup.

Progress bar shadow

Enables or disables the shadows in the progress bar. Disabling this setting can improve display performance.

Check if share is writable

Mark this checkbox to ensure all data can be written to the VSIshare.

Progress bar display

Configure in which mode the progress bar is shown. This drop down menu has 2 options: Normal and Compact.

Published Apps

These settings are specifically designed for use when conducting tests with Published Apps. For detailed information on these settings, please see this section on PA configuration.

Logoff

Logoff session at

Offers 3 options: segment, timer and loop. Segment is the default option. What this means is when the logoff command is given the workload doesn’t stop and logs off. Depending on the setting it finishes its workload until the first new timer, segment or loop is reached. For more information, please see this section on the logoff triggers.

Logoff action

Determines which shutdown action the session should do when the logoff signal has been sent to the sessions. By default this is ‘shutdown /l’ (this is a lowercase L) /l = This option will immediately log off the current user on the current machine. You can change these settings to fit your testing wishes.

Logoff session on fatal error

Toggles if the sessions logoff when a fatal error appears, this is toggled off by default.

Collect VMware ESXTop performance logs

Mark the checkbox to enable this functionality. Only available for Login VSI version 4.1.25 and higher. For more information, see this section on ESXTop configuration.

Customization

This section is about the actual workloads. In the main window you can see the current list of workloads. At the bottom of the window there are 5 buttons. Default workloads can only be copied but never edited. Double clicking on a workload will create a copy of the workload and the workload that will be shown is the copy and not the original.

There are a default number of different workloads available for testing, which are available in two versions: Regular and Published Apps. The Published App versions are designed for use when the application is physically installed on a separate device, like a server in a datacenter, and virtualization software displays it on the endpoint machine.

All the workloads are based on the default applications included in the install software (see Target Setup). The applications are:

• Doro PDF printer
• Adobe Reader
• Adobe Flash
• Java
• Microsoft Office 2007–16 (not included in download)

The buttons in the bottom of the screen are used to interact with the workloads.

New

This will create an empty(!) workload, it will ask you for a name. Once a name has been entered a new window will appear where you can begin creating your own workload.

Copy

This button will make a copy of the selected workload. The new name will look like “%workloadname% - Copy”.

Edit

This will let you edit the selected workload. If you press edit on a default workload it will automatically create a copy of that workload and open the copy. Default workloads cannot be edited.

Rename

Rename the selected workload. Rename only works on custom workloads.

Delete

Delete the selected workload. Delete only works on custom workloads

Creating a workload

Creating a workload is a reasonable easy. For more information on this process, please go to the Workload Language Reference Guide to see all the commands needed to create a working workload.

Test setup

The test setup allows you to configure the actual workload and test variables of your test. The window shows a number of options. You have the option Workload, Workload Mash up, Phase list, a summary line and a row of buttons.

Scenario

In this section you are able to configure the workload and phase sequence of the test.

Workload

This section allows you to choose the preferred workload. This can be either a custom workload or a default workload. The last option the ‘Workload mashup’ is different from the rest.

Workload Mashup

This allows you to combine several different workloads into one test creating different load ratio’s. This is used to create a more realistic result of your environment. Since a lot of users in a company have different tasks and have a different effect on the infrastructure. See the Workload mashup section for more information.

Phase list

When conducting performance tests, you can use the Phases functionality to simulate several phases that run consecutively after one another, instead of having to manually run multiple tests one after the other.

All of these phases run consecutively, for example, lets say the first phase has 20 users, the second has 30 and third has 50. The first phase will run, the sessions will not logoff, the second phase will run, total sessions is now 50, and after that the third phase will run bringing the total to 100 users (users = sessions). Manipulating phases not only allows what is described above but also opens the door to other modified test scenarios. Please note that the chosen workload will be applied to ALL phases.

Note: The users (sessions) of all the phases are counted and must not exceed the maximum amount of users configured in your license file.

A phase consists of 6 different settings.

Name

The name of the phase.

Sessions

The number of sessions the phase will start

Launch window

This setting is defined in seconds. This is the total time of seconds that all of the configured sessions will launch. So when you have 10 sessions and a launch window of 300 seconds a new session will start every 30 seconds.  

Overall logon rate

This shows how many seconds there are between every launch moment of a session. This is automatically filled and is based on the amount of sessions and the launch window.

Total Sessions per launcher

This number depends on the amount of launchers that are configured in the Infrastructure > Launcher tab. It divides the amount of sessions with the amount of launchers.

Launcher logon rate

The launcher logon rate is the effective amount of sessions that are launched every interval on each configured launcher. When you have configured 10 sessions with a launch window of 10 seconds then every second a session will start. But when you have 2 launchers this amount is doubled because each launcher has 5 sessions so in order to launch 5 sessions in 10 seconds each session will launch within 2 seconds of each other.

Totals

Shows the total amount of sessions configured and what the total launch window is.

Buttons

There are a few buttons located at the bottom of the window. These buttons (and one check-box) have different settings.

Checkbox / basephase

Enables or disables the base phase setting. The base phase button will allow you to configure your base phase. This phase is documented on our documentation site: http://www.loginvsi.com/documentation/index.php?title=Basephase

The window that pops up shows a number of different configurations.

Amount of sessions

Allows you to set the amount of sessions that will be started during the base phase.

Amount of samples per session

Allows you to set the amount of samples a basephase session takes in order to do the calculation of the basephase / baseline.

Session logon interval

Configures the interval of the sessions, so when this is 6 then every 6 seconds a new session will start.

Interval per sample

Sets the amount of seconds are between each sample.

Save & Cancel Button

The ‘save’ button allows you to save the configuration, and the ‘cancel’ button cancels all the changes and resets to the previous setting.

Information button

The information button allows you to enter more specific information about your test environment. Once pressed a screen will pop-up.

The additional Information window allows you to set the number of hosts of your target environment. How many (total) number of physical cpu’s are available. And how many number of physical cores there are available. And at last you can enable or disable the hyperthreading setting.

The reason for these settings is that once all these settings are configured the phase list will show additional values next to the already described ones. This creates a more detailed view of the resource distribution for your environment

We have described the list until the “Total sessions per (launcher)” column. We will now explain the new variables.

Host Logon Rate

The amount of sessions a host will handle each variable amount of seconds.

Total Session per CPU

The amount of sessions a cpu will run.

CPU logon Rate

The amount of seconds between each session for a CPU.

Total Session per Core

The amount of sessions each core will run.

Core logon Rate The amount of seconds between each session for each core.

Col total session per Log(ical) processor

The amount of sessions each logical processor (hyperthreading core) has.

Log(ical) Processor Logon Rate

The amount of seconds between each session for each logical processor (hyperthreading core).

Move up

Allows you to move a selected phase up in the list.

Move down

Allows you to move a selected phase down in the list.

Add phase

Shows a window where you can enter the phase name, number of sessions and total time in seconds. The total time in seconds corresponds with the Launch window.

Insert phase

Inserts a new phase above the selected phase. A new line will be added that can be configured.

Delete phase

Deletes the selected phase.

Connection

This section will describe the connection section of the Test setup. The connection section is used to configure the connection so the launcher machines can successfully setup a connection to the host / target machine.

There are two ways of setting up the connection, you can either use the wizard (button is located at the top right of the window) or you can manually enter the connection command line. This is not recommended for new users.

First the default screen will be explained, then we will talk about the wizard.

Connection Configuration

The connection configuration contains the command line used by the launcher to connect to the target / host machine. It also has the setting of adding a CSV file.

Command line

The command line is based on the settings you entered manually or via the connection wizard. For example: "{VSISHARE}\_VSI_Binaries\Connectors\RDPConnect.exe" /server VDI.test.now /user loginvsi01 /password Password! For each connector there are several extra settingalities available so every connector is applicable a large variation of environments. Click this link (http://www.loginvsi.com/documentation/index.php?title=Connectors_reference) to go to the documentation site.

CSV file

It is possible to add the needed command line values through the use of a CSV file. The commandline needs to change in order to work. There is an example below: "{VSISHARE}\_VSI_Binaries\Connectors\RDPConnect.exe" /server {CSV_Resource} /user {domain}\{CSV_User} /password {CSV_password} By selecting the checkbox you are able to click browse and select a CSV file. For more information please check our page about CSV files: http://www.loginvsi.com/documentation/index.php?title=Using_a_CSV_file

Connection Details

When using the wizard these settings are set automatically. But it is possible to configure them manually.

Server

Contains the IP address, FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) or the hostname of the Host machine. This is used in the commandline to point the connector to the right Host machine.

Username

Contains the username used to connect to your environment. If you have an A.D. and you configured the users with Login VSI ad setup tool you should enter that name in this textbox. When you have numbers behind this username you should add {count/1 2 .. 9} depending on your configuration (see ad setup). Please note that {count} is the same as {count/1} . This is used in the commandline to point the connector to the right user that connects to the target machine.

Password

The password that is used in combination with the username to connect to the target machine. This is used in the commandline to set the password that is used by the connector.

Domain

The domain in which your user is located. In the wizard the setting is optional since citrix and VM environments can connect to one AD so the domain name is not required. If this setting is enabled and the domain textbox is filled in, the connection might not work. This is used in the commandline to point the connector to the right logon domain.

Connection Wizard

The connection wizard creates the command line based on the configuration you have entered in the connection wizard. All the supported connector types will be mentioned in detail. When you click the button (in the upper right of the window) a new window appears.

The connection wizard has been defined in detail for each of the connectors on a different page. Please click here (http://www.loginvsi.com/documentation/index.php?title=Connectors_reference) to go there.

Start test

When everything is configured properly you are able to start your test. The start test window shows a summary of the configured settings and the last executed test. In the upper right of the window there is a button which will start the “Start test” wizard.

Test settings

Contains the settings configured in the test setup scenario. It summarizes the Workload, Total Sessions, Total Duration (logon duration), Number of phases and active launchers.

Intervals

Shows the average interval per CPU (only if the extra information option in the test setup > scenario is configured) the average interval per launcher and the average interval per host (only if the extra information option in the test setup > scenario is configured).

Connection Settings

Contains which CSV file (if configured in the “Test setup > Connection” section) is used and what the command line is that will be used by the test.

Last executed test

Shows the name and date of the last test that has run.

Start Test

When the start test button is pressed the following screen will appear (if the welcome screens are disabled in the Login VSI settings it will skip the wizard welcome screen).

Press next for the next window.

Test configuration

The next window has two settings that can be configured.

Logoff users when test has completed successfully

This setting can be enabled, if this is not enabled the workload will loop for 99999 times. Or a differently configured amount (see Workload > Settings > Maximum Loops setting). The “Initiate logoff sequence ### seconds after the last user has logged on” setting allows you to set a specific runtime for the workload. Depending on the amount of loops configured in the Workload > settings page and how many seconds configured in this configuration it will run until one of the timers run out. For example, each loop takes about 48 minutes to run and is set to a maximum loops of 2, that means the test will run for about 1 hour and 36 minutes. If the logoff sequence is set on 3600 seconds, the test will run until the first timer runs out. In this case it will be after 3600 seconds or 1 hour. Keep in mind that the sessions will finish their segment, timer or loop after the logoff sequence has been initiated.

Enable profile create mode

Enabling this will overwrite the previously selected workload (found in Test setup > Scenario). This workload will only start a session with a user and start applications needed in other workloads. For example this option is used in statefull VDI environments. Click next to proceed.

Test name

This allows you to set a name and description for the test. We recommend you use a logical name for the test so it’s easier to find the test results. In the name of the test certain variables can be used to speed-up names and to make it easier to create a new test name. The variables that can be used are:

• {users}, will be replaced with the total number of users.
• {workload}, will be replaced with the name of the workload.
• {language}. will be replaced with the name of the workload language selected.
• {debugmode}, will be replaced with DebugModeEnabled if both debugging options are enabled, EngineDebugModeEnabled if just engine debugging is enabled, WorkloadDebugModeEnabled if just workload debugging is enabled and DebugModeDisabled if debugging is disabled.
• {officeversion}, will be replaced with the name of the office version slected in the workload.
• {increment}, will auto increment test names. Increment will look at existing test names with the same name and increment the number. If you use increment then the management console will remember the test name used and will automatically increment the previous test name.

The textbox underneath the test name is used for comments or the description of the test you are going to run.

Once done click next.

Launcher workflow

The launcher workflow will start the launcher agent for you remotely. The launcher workflow does the following:

1. Enumerate which sessions are logged on to the remote machine by using WTSEnumerateSessions
2. Log off the sessions found in step 1 above using WTSLogoffSession. This will make sure that logging on the user in step 3 will trigger the logon script.
3. Initiate a RDP session by using RDPConnect. The username for the RDP session should use the launcher user account created using the AD setup script or the launcher account that was manually created. This user has a logon script that will trigger the launcher agent.

Launcher workflow requirements

The launcher workflow requires:

• A launcher user either created using the AD setup script or the launcher account that was manually created.
• Remote desktop services to be enabled on the machines designated as launchers.
• The launcher user account must be allowed to log on to the launcher machine using RDP. This typically means that the launcher user must be a member of the local Remote Desktop Users group.
• Additionally for a desktop OS: Remote RPC must be enabled. See this link for instructions on how to enable it.

Launcher workflow configuration

Check the "Use launcher workflow" checkbox to enable the launcher workflow. When the checkbox is checked a few additional settings need to be configured.

Launcher username

This is the name used to log in to the launcher machine. This is the same launcher account created using the AD setup script or the launcher account that was manually created.

Launcher password

This is the password used, in combination with the username, to login the launcher machine.

Maximum concurrent operations

This is the maximum concurrent number of launchers on which the launcher workflow will be initiated.

Connection resolution

This is the resolution used by the RDP session to connect to the launcher machine.

Disconnect From launcher after success

Checking this checkbox will disconnect the RDP session launched by the launcher workflow. This will clean up the RDP sessions on the computer running the management console. This will not influence the launching process.

Launcher workflow common issues

The current user does not have permission to enumerate and/or logoff the user sessions on the launcher

cause: The launcher workflow tried to enumerate the currently logged on users on the launcher machine but the API returned Access Denied.

solution: Make sure that:

1. The user running the management console has administrator rights on the launcher machine.
2. If the launcher machine is a desktop OS that remote RPC is enabled. See this link

The launcher is either offline or is firewalled

cause: The launcher workflow tried to enumerate the currently logged on users on the launcher machine but the API was unable to find the remote machine.

solution: Make sure that:

1. The launcher hostname resolves to an IP address.
2. There is no typo in the launcher hostname.
3. The Windows Firewall is either disabled or does not block Remote Administration.

Pre and post scripts

Pre and post scripts are run before and after the tests starts. This setting is useful when, for example, you want to run a performance monitor application before the test starts, as a pre-script, and gather the results after the test as a post-script. The post-test script is run after the logoff sequence is sent. Please note: Pre and post test scripts do not support parameters. If you want to use parameters then create a batch script and point to that as the pre or post test script.

Pre-test script

Allows you to set the path to the pre-test script file you want to run.

Post-test script

Allows you to set the path to the post-test script file you want to run.

Run pre-test script now

When you select this the pre-test script will run once next is pressed

Run pre-test script when launchers are ready

Enables you to let the pre-test script run when the launchers are ready. Choosing one of these options depends on the pre-test script purpose.

Session monitor status

Shows if the Session monitor is running. Make sure you run this with a user that has permissions to modify files on the VSI share.

Try to run the Session Monitor on the Windows Server that has the VSI share locally installed. The Session Monitor path should be: “C:\VSI_share” This setting will decrease network load.

If the VSIshare is NOT configured on a Windows Server but on a different Network Storage System, then you should run the Session Monitor from a Windows machine but then the Session Monitor should point the path to UNC i.e. “\\NFS\VSishare”.

Launcher check

This starts the launcher machines (configured in the infrastructure > Launchers) and launches the launchers. An RDP session is started and will automatically close if the checkbox in the launcher workflow was selected.

Automatically continue when all launchers are ready

When you have, for example, 20 launchers it will take some time to launch them all. You can select this option to start the test automatically so you can focus on other tasks rather than wait on the launchers to start.

This option only reaches its true potential if you have configured the Launcher Workflow.

Finish

When everything is configured you can click next and then finish the wizard will close and the test dashboard will appear in the management console. Management console test dashboard

The test dashboard shows the status of your current running test.

Timers

Show how long the test is running (elapsed time). How much time until all sessions have been launched (Estimated time remaining) and the estimate time until the logoff command is given. When the timer for logoff has completed, it is recommended not to abort the test, as some users may still be running. Please watch the hyper visor to know when to restart a test.

Graphs

The next 3 graphs show different information. The first shows the amount of sessions that are launched. The second shows the amount of active sessions (it is normal of the active sessions to run behind the launched sessions). The third shows the logged off sessions, this only happens when the logoff command is given and the users have logged off successfully.

hint: The Launched and Active sessions should be close in number and increasing at a reasonable rate. If there is a large difference in between the two numbers or Active sessions is a lot smaller than Launched, then it would indicate that there might be issues with AD users signing onto the test machines. Things that can influence this are GPOs and others.

Logon Timer

Shows the logon times of the sessions that are launched, this can give you an idea of the logon-load on the target host.

Launchers

Is a list of launchers used by this test, it also shows it set capacity and how many sessions that are launched on that launcher. If there is some kind of error that appears on the launcher, clicking on the blue link will help show what the issue that stopped the launcher from working properly.

Errors

Shows the errors that can occur in the sessions. It also counts the amount of errors. Launcher errors, are errors generated by the launcher i.e. the launcher is unable to launch a session. Session errors are errors generated during the workload of the sessions. If you would like to know more of your errors in the workload, going onto \\Server\VSIShare\_VSI_Logfiles\<Testname>\Debug\Errorshots will help show what issues have stopped the test. Debugging must be enabled for this.

Pause and abort buttons

Pauses the launchers from launching more sessions. The abort button aborts the test, does not immediately logoff the sessions, these logoff when the logoff sequence is used due to a timer or when the maximum amount of loops have been reached. The Resume button will resume the launcher to launch new sessions.