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Rational® Performance Tester
Test Execution Specialist Guide
This guide describes tasks that you can perform on schedules, test execution with custom code, and Extending Rational® Performance Tester to support other protocols. This guide is intended for testers or test execution specialists.
Running schedules with performance testing
After you have added the user groups, tests, and other items to a schedule, and you are satisfied that it represents a realistic workload, you run the schedule.
Testing with Docker images
IBM® Rational® Performance Tester, IBM Rational Functional Tester, and IBM Rational Performance Tester Agents are available for download as Docker images. You can use them to fulfill the continuous testing aspects of your DevOps lifecycle.
Running tests with containerized agents
When you have a local workbench, instead of installing the agents on different machines and locations, you can deploy the containerized agents to generate the load.

Rational® Performance Tester
- Release Notes
  This document contains information about what's new, installation instructions, known issues in IBM® Rational® Performance Tester and contact information of IBM Customer Support.
- System Requirements
  This document includes information about hardware and software requirements for IBM® Rational® Performance Tester.
- Getting Started
  This guide provides an overview and describes the task flows to get you to start with Rational® Performance Tester. This guide is intended for new users.
- Tutorials
  This section contains the tutorials which explains the main features of Rational® Performance Tester.
- Samples
  This section describes about the sample project which can be used with Rational® Performance Tester to test the functionality of an application.
- Administrator Guide
  This guide describes how to install Rational® Performance Tester. After you install the product, you can perform administration tasks such as license configuration and integration with other products. This guide is intended for administrators.
- Test Author Guide
  This guide describes how to create test scripts in Rational® Performance Tester and enhances tests by applying different test elements such as dataset, variables, and verification points. This guide is intended for testers.
- Test Execution Specialist Guide
  This guide describes tasks that you can perform on schedules, test execution with custom code, and Extending Rational® Performance Tester to support other protocols. This guide is intended for testers or test execution specialists.
  - Running schedules with performance testing
    After you have added the user groups, tests, and other items to a schedule, and you are satisfied that it represents a realistic workload, you run the schedule.
    - Running a local schedule or test
      You can run a test locally or a schedule, in this context, is used to refer to both VU Schedule and Rate Schedule on remote locations with a default launch configuration.
    - Running a long run mode SAP GUI test
      When running a SAP GUI test that could last for many hours and could use up the operating system resources, you can choose to run the test with the Long Run Mode process. It is an external process that restarts automatically after the specified number of SAP sessions are over. So, tests of longer duration tests are more likely to finish.
    - Running long duration Citrix tests
      When tests exceed many hours, resource consumption issues can cause problems for the Citrix clients. The long run mode increases the reliability of long duration tests with the Citrix protocol by running the test using multiple processes.
    - Testing with Docker images
      IBM® Rational® Performance Tester, IBM Rational Functional Tester, and IBM Rational Performance Tester Agents are available for download as Docker images. You can use them to fulfill the continuous testing aspects of your DevOps lifecycle.
      - Running tests with containerized agents
        When you have a local workbench, instead of installing the agents on different machines and locations, you can deploy the containerized agents to generate the load.
      - Running automated tests with containerized workbench and agents from Docker
        To simplify the deployment piece of Continuous Testing, you can use built Docker images to deploy the workbench and the agents and start testing in no time. You need not install the workbench and the agents on different machines. You can deploy the Docker images and use Docker commands to play back tests.
    - Testing with IBM Cloud Private
      You can automate your testing environment by using Docker container images of the workbench and agents on top of IBM® Cloud Private.
    - Adjusting delays in HTTP tests
      You can configure HTTP tests to use client-side processing delays. Client-side processing delays wait for the first character or last character that is received in a response for a previous request in order to better emulate the work done on the client computer. You can also scale the recorded delays in HTTP tests to change the rate at which a test runs.
    - Setting a launch configuration
      Instead of using the default launch configuration, you can specify the file name for the execution results, the name of the folder for the execution results, and, for a test, the number of users.
    - Running a configured schedule
      If you do not use the default launch configuration, you can configure the schedule and then run it.
    - Configuring multiple host names for a location
      You can run several locations on the same computer by configuring multiple host names for a location. This configuration affects all tests running at that location; all tests will run with the configured port.
    - Automating tests from command line
      You can run a schedule from the command line. You can also set preferences to export results after the run completes from the command line or from the workbench. Together, these features let you run tests and analyze results without opening the workbench. You can even write scripts to process the exported results.
    - Controlling caches size
      If you use an infinite loop and the number of cached responses in a test increases exponentially, you can set a limit to cache for a user group in the schedule.
    - Increasing memory allocation
      The virtual users that access your web server require memory to prepare requests, send requests, and receive responses. Because the amount of memory is not automatically set on remote computers, you might receive an out-of-memory error. To correct this situation, increase the memory allocation for that computer.
    - Controlling execution of web analytic reports
      When a schedule is in the running state, you can perform the following actions from the web analytics reports to cater to your need.
    - Debugging HTTP tests
      If a test does not behave as expected during playback, you can use the protocol data and test log to assist in debugging the test.
    - Debugging Citrix tests
      The Citrix dashboard is an optional panel that displays detailed information and control commands for each virtual user during the run of a schedule. This is useful for debugging your tests and allows you to pause, interact, resume, or stop the execution of individual virtual user sessions.
  - Extending test execution with custom code
    You can extend how you run your tests by writing custom Java™ code and calling the code from the test. You can also specify that results from the tests that are affected by your custom code be included in reports.
  - Extending Rational® Performance Tester to support other protocols
    The Rational® Performance Tester Extensibility Software Development Kit (SDK) enables you to create extensions to support testing new protocols without modifying the core product code. You can create an extension that provides functionality for testing other protocols in addition to the HTTP protocol support that is standard in Rational Performance Tester.
- Test Manager Guide
  This guide describes how to keep track of the performance of the application by evaluating the test results. This guide is intended for test managers.
- Troubleshooting Guide
  This guide describes how to analyze and resolve some of the common problems that you might encounter while you work with Rational® Performance Tester.
- Reference Guide
  This guide describes, additional topics to gain more knowledge about Rational® Performance Tester.
- All Guides (PDFs)
  You can find the link to view or download the content of the release notes, system requirements, and persona guides of Rational® Performance Tester as a PDF file.
- Security Considerations
  You can take certain actions to ensure that your installation is secure, customize your security settings, and set up user access controls.
- Notices
  This document provides information about copyright, trademarks, terms and conditions for the product documentation.

Running tests with containerized agents

When you have a local workbench, instead of installing the agents on different machines and locations, you can deploy the containerized agents to generate the load.

Before you begin

You must have configured the Docker container. See Configuring Docker containers.

About this task

Typically, when the agents are installed, you specify the workbench host name and port number to establish the connection with the workbench. If you use containerized agents, they are already installed. Therefore, you specify the connection information during the run.

Note: The version number of the container images and the desktop products must match. If you have previous version of the container image, uninstall it and install the latest version.

To uninstall the image, you must stop the container by running the docker stop "CONTAINER ID" command, and then run the docker rmi -f "image ID" command to uninstall the image.

Procedure

Start the container instance of the agent by running the following command:

$ docker run -dit --rm -e MASTER_NAME=Workbench_name or IP -e MASTER_PORT=port_number -e AGENT_NAME=Agent_name -e AGENT_IP=IP_address imageName:imageVersion

Table 1. Description of parameters
Command	Description
-dit	Specifies that the agent container runs in the background.
--rm	Specifies to clean up the container and remove the file system when the container exits.
MASTER_NAME	Specifies the IP or host name of the workbench.
MASTER_PORT	Specifies the port number of the workbench. If you use the default port number of 7080, this command is optional.
AGENT_NAME	Optional: Specifies the name of the agent that report to the workbench.
AGENT_IP	Optional: Specifies the IP address of the agent that report to the workbench.
imageName:imageVersion	Specifies the name and version of the image.

Click the Agent Status icon from the product to verify the two container agents are polling the workbench.

Note: The agent host names should match the IDs of the containers running in Docker. Make a note of the IP address of the each agent since they must be used when creating the agent locations.
In the schedule editor, create a new location test asset for each container agent so that the selected User Group runs on two agent locations.
Run the schedule.
The deployment step could result in the schedule remaining in the Launching state for several minutes.