User group overview

User groups enable you to group tests in a logical order.

With user groups, you can control test execution in several ways:

Group tests by characteristics. For example, you could have two user groups—a Buyers group and a Browsers group—that represent the types of users on your system.
Influence the order in which tests are run. When you run a schedule, the first test in each user group runs—in parallel, not sequentially. After the first test in a user group is completed, the second test runs, then the third, and so on.

The following schedule contains one user group.

Schedule with a user group called Browsers and Buyers. The user group contains five tests: Open, Browse, Open, Browse, Bid.

If you run this schedule with 10 users, they are assigned to the only user group—Browsers and Buyers. When the schedule run starts, the 10 virtual users start running the first test in parallel. As soon as one test is finished, a virtual user moves to the second test. Thus, you have 10 virtual users, all starting at the same time and running each test sequentially. This does not give you much control over the run.

The following schedule contains the same tests in the same order, but they are divided between two user groups. Conceptually, this schedule is easier to understand, because the user's tasks are grouped logically—the Browsers browse, and the Buyers browse and then bid on a product. But, even more important, this schedule is a more accurate representation of the types of users on your system, because each user group contains tests that represent the actions that they do, and the proportions of the user groups (70% and 30%) represent the proportions of the users on your system.

Schedule with two user groups. Browsers group contains two tests: Open and Browse. Buyers group contains three tests: Open, Browse, Bid.

If you run this schedule with 10 users, seven are assigned to the Browsers group, and three are assigned to the Buyers group. When the run starts, the seven Browsers and the three Buyers start in parallel. Thus, you have seven Browsers, each running two tests sequentially, and three Buyers, each running three tests sequentially.

Adding a user group to a schedule
By defining user groups, you can group related tests and run the tests in parallel.
Adjusting user groups
You can adjust multiple user groups simultaneously to distribute a load across groups and to set the groups to run on the workbench computer. Typically, when you run performance schedules, user groups run on remote agent computers, not on the local workbench computer.
Emulating slower network traffic
You can emulate various WAN connection speeds used for HTTP traffic to determine its effect on response times and throughput.
Running long duration tests
When tests exceed 24 hours, resource consumption issues can cause problems with the SAP and Citrix clients. The long run mode increases the reliability of long duration tests with the SAP and Citrix protocols by running the tests in multiple processes.
Running a user group at a remote location
You can run a user group at a remote location (also called an agent computer), rather than on your local computer, to prevent your workbench activity from affecting the ability to apply load.