How to watch a Vuser running in real time?

When emulating users, you should be able to view their actions in real time and make sure they are performing the right steps. The Controller lets you view the actions in real time using the run-time viewer.

To visually observe the Vuser’s actions:

  1. Click the Vusers button. The Vusers window opens. 
    running vuser
    The Status column displays the status of each Vuser. In the example above, you can see that four Vusers are running and four are in down. The Start Vusers action in the scheduler instructed the Controller to release two Vusers at a time. As the scenario progresses, Vusers will continue to be added in groups of two at 30-second intervals.
  2. Select a running Vuser in the Vuser list.
  3. Click the Show the selected Vusers button on the Vusers toolbar. The Run-Time Viewer opens and displays the action currently being performed by the selected Vuser. The window is updated as the Vuser proceeds through the steps of the recorded script.
  4. Click the Hide the selected Vusers button on the Vusers toolbar to close the Run-Time Viewer log.

Where to view a summary of user actions?

To check the progress of an individual Vuser during a running test, you can view a log file containing a text summary of the Vuser’s actions.

To review a text summary of the events:

1. Select a running Vuser in the Vusers window, and click the Show Vuser Log button. The Vuser log window opens.

output file
The log contains messages that correspond to the actions of the Vuser. For example, in the window above, the message Virtual User Script started indicates the start of the scenario. Scroll to the bottom of the log and watch as new messages are added for each action performed by the selected Vuser.

2. Close the Vuser log window and the Vusers window.

How can I increase the load during the test?

You can increase the load on the application during a running load test, by manually adding more Vusers.

To increase load during a load test:

1. In the Run view, click the Run/Stop Vusers button. The Run/Stop Vuser dialog box opens displaying the number of Vusers currently assigned to run in the scenario.

2. In the # column, enter the number of additional Vusers to the group that you want to add. To run two additional Vusers, replace the number 8 with the number 2, in the # column.

3. Click Run to add the Vusers.

Run Stop vusers

These 2 additional Vusers are distributed to the travel_agent group and are run on the localhost load generator. The Scenario Status pane shows that there are now 10 running Vusers.

How is the application performing under load?

Check the Scenario Status pane for a summary of the running scenario, and drill down to see which Vuser actions are causing the application problems. A high number of failed transactions and errors indicates that the application is not performing as expected under load.

1. View the test status

The Scenario Status pane displays the overall status of the scenario.

scenario status

2. View breakdown of Vuser actions

Click Passed Transactions in the Scenario Status pane to view a list of transaction details. The Transactions dialog box opens.

transactions