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.
Before you begin
Before you run a user group at
a remote location, verify that:
- IBM® Rational® Performance Tester Agent
is installed on the remote computer. The agent is configured and connected
to the Rational Performance Tester workbench.
- Firewall is disabled on the workbench computer or configured to
allow incoming connections on the port number 7080.
- A reasonable number of virtual users will run at the remote location. When you
assign a user group to a remote location, do not overload the remote
computer (agent). If you exceed the number of virtual users that the
remote computer can run, the performance measurements of the server
will be skewed because they will be affected by the performance of
the computer. The test results will reflect the load of the computer
more than the load of the server. For best results on a computer with
a 1 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM, do not exceed 1000 concurrent virtual
users.
About this task
Generally, you should run user groups at a remote locations.
You
must run a user group at a remote location in these cases:
- When a large number of virtual users are running and the local
computer does not have enough processor or memory resources to support
this load. You can conserve resources by running the users on different
locations, so that fewer users run on each computer.
- When a test requires specific client libraries or software. The
user group that contains this test must run on a computer that has
the libraries or software installed.
Procedure
- In the Test Navigator, browse to the schedule and double-click
it. The schedule opens.
- In the schedule, click the user group that you want to
run on a different computer.
- In the Schedule Element Details area, click Run
this group on the following locations.
- To declare a remote location:
- Click . The Add
New wizard opens. On the first page of the wizard, you
can specify general properties for the remote location.
- In Hostname, type the IP address
or the fully qualified host name of the remote computer.
- In Name, type a descriptive name
for the remote computer.
- In Deployment Directory, type
the directory on the remote computer to store the test assets. The directory, which is created if it does not exist, stores
the temporary files that are needed during a schedule run.
- In Operating System, select the
operating system of the remote computer, and then click Next.
Note: If you use Processor Value Unit (PVU) licensing capability,
you must select the operation system that is PVU licensed. For example, Windows
(PVU Licensed) and not Windows.
- Specify the IP aliasing properties for this location.
To make it appear as though each virtual user has its own IP address,
click Enable IP Aliasing.
- To use IP addresses from all network interfaces at the
remote location, click Use IP addresses from all network
interfaces.
- To use addresses from a subset of network interfaces,
click Only use IP addresses from the following network
interfaces.
Tip: Click Add to
add the name of an interface and Edit to change
the interface name. Specify network interfaces separated by commas,
for example, eth0, eth1. If you do not use
this form, the connection attempt fails.
- Click Next. On the third page
of this wizard, you can specify file locations.
- In File name, type the name of
the file to contain information about this computer, and then click Next.
Note: The data stored in the file includes information such
as the host name and deployment directory. You can change this information
later by opening the Test Navigator and double-clicking the file.
- To add an already declared location:
- Click .
- In the Select Location window,
select the computer on which the user group will run, and then click OK.