Debugging tests with the Citrix monitoring panel

When enabled, the Citrix monitoring panel provides the ability to pause your tests during a run and to provide manual input. It also provides a comparison view to compare expected window events with the actual window events received during the test. This capability can be useful when you are debugging your tests.

Before you begin

To display the Citrix monitoring panel during VU Schedule runs, first enable the panel. See Enabling and disabling the Citrix monitoring panel for more information.

The Citrix monitoring panel uses resources; therefore, use the panel only for debugging and test development. For actual performance testing, disable the panel so that the results are accurate.

Procedure

  1. With the monitoring panel option enabled, run the VU Schedule.
    A window opens with the virtual users running Citrix clients on multiple pages. Click a tab to display the corresponding virtual user.
  2. Click the Monitoring tab to display the monitoring panel.
    The monitoring panel displays the following information:
    Monitoring Panel
    This panel displays information about the execution of each virtual user.
    Pool Name
    Displays the name of the virtual user pool. There is one pool per location and user group.
    Active Virtual Users
    Displays the number of virtual users currently active. This value is updated permanently during the run.
    User Action Rate
    Displays the number of Citrix user key or mouse actions that were simulated during the last 5 second interval.
    Total Elapsed Time
    Displays the total time elapsed since the start of the schedule run.
    Current® Action
    Displays the last user action executed in the test.
    Timeouts
    Displays the number of synchronization timeouts for the virtual user. The color represents the status of the timeout:
    • Green: ok.
    • Yellow: a timeout occurred on a conditional synchronization.
    • Red: a timeout occurred on a mandatory synchronization.
    Elapsed Time
    Displays the time elapsed since the start of the virtual user run.
    Status
    Displays the execution status of the virtual user.
  3. Select a virtual user and click one of the following buttons to interact with the execution of the test.
    Go To
    Click to display the Citrix session of the selected virtual user.
    Pause or Play
    Click to pause or resume the execution of the selected virtual user. You can also pause the execution by setting breakpoints in the test.
    Step
    When the test is on pause, click to execute each user input action in the test, step by step. To pause test execution, you can either click the Pause button or set breakpoints in the test. Click Play to resume the test.
    Interact
    When the test is on pause, click to allow manual actions in the virtual user session. Use this feature if a test fails to synchronize or gets stuck in an unexpected state. To pause test execution, you can either click the Pause button or set breakpoints in the test. Click Play again to resume the test execution at the point where it was paused.
    Stop
    Click to stop the execution of the selected virtual user. When all virtual users are stopped, the schedule ends.
  4. When you have finished interacting with the Citrix session, click Play to resume the execution.