Setting Up Remote Agent Stations

Applies to LoadComplete 4.97, last modified on May 20, 2019

To simulate virtual users on remote load stations, you must have LoadComplete Remote Agent installed on these stations. You can download the installation package from the My SmartBear portal. For more information on the utility and installing it on load stations, see Installing Remote Agent.

All the stations involved in load testing must meet the requirements specified in the Requirements topic. You may also need to configure your remote load stations and prepare them for load testing. The following sections describe how to do this.

Set up the Master station

All projects in LoadComplete always have the Master station that corresponds to the computer where LoadComplete is installed. See the Master station in the Stations editor.

You can use the Master station to simulate all virtual users (up to 2000) in your load test.

Note: If a proxy server is used in your network, configure LoadComplete to use that proxy to access the network. For more information, see Proxy Options.

Set up remote stations in local network

To use a computer in your local network as a remote load station, prepare that computer for load testing:

  • Install LoadComplete Remote Agent on the computer.

  • Make sure ports in the 55937–65535 range are open on the remote computer. The Remote Agent utility uses these ports to communicate with LoadComplete and with tested web servers.

    If you use a firewall, make sure it allows traffic through these ports. See LoadComplete and Windows Firewall.

After preparing your remote stations for testing, configure your load testing project:

  1. In the Stations editor, add a new station to the stations list. In the Host column specify the IP address or the network name of the remote computer where Remote Agent is installed.

  2. Assign the created station to the desired group of virtual users in the Load Test editor.

Note: If a proxy server is used in your local network, to simulate virtual users via that proxy, configure the Network > Proxy options in LoadComplete on your master computer (the one from which you control the test runs), and then enable the Simulating > General > Agents > Use proxy settings for remote agents option in LoadComplete.

Set up remote stations outside of local network

To simulate virtual users on a computer that belongs to a private network outside of your local network and resides behind a router providing NAT services:

1. Prepare remote computers for load testing

  1. Install Remote Agent on this computer.

  2. Specify the network router’s IP as the default gateway for the computer.

  3. Open ports from the 55937–65535 range on the remote computer:

    • Start with port 55937.

    • Open one port for each one hundred of virtual users you will simulate on that computer.

    • If a port in the range is not available, skip it and open the next port.

    Make sure that the firewall allows traffic through the needed ports. See LoadComplete and Windows Firewall.

2. Configure the network router

Configure port forwarding for ports you have opened for the Remote Agent utility. Make sure that the traffic from your local computer and from the remote computer is allowed through the ports.

3. Configure your load testing project

  1. In the Stations editor, add a new station to the list. In the Host column, specify the IP address of the remote network router.

  2. In the Load Test editor, assign the created station to the desired group of virtual users.

Note: If a proxy server is used in that private network, to simulate virtual users via that proxy, configure the Network > Proxy options in LoadComplete on your master computer (the one from which you control the test runs), and then enable the Simulating > General > Agents > Use proxy settings for remote agents option in LoadComplete.

Set up remote stations in virtual and cloud environment

LoadComplete Remote Agent does not require activation. You can install it on virtual computers and use to simulate virtual users in a virtual environment.

Your virtual computer where you want to simulate virtual users must belong to a network and have network access to your local computer and the web server you want to test.

How you prepare your virtual computers for load testing depends on how they connect to your local computer:

To simulate virtual users on an Amazon cloud computer, use the SmartBear LoadComplete Remote Agent image. It is a public image provided by SmartBear for load testing. It already has Remote Agent installed and configured. When you add a new item to the Cloud collection in your project, it already has the public image assigned by default.

To use a custom machine image, install Remote Agent on it. If you use firewall on your cloud computers, make sure it allows traffic through ports 55937 - 65535. For instructions on how to create a custom Amazon Machine Image for load testing, see Creating Custom Amazon Machine Images for Load Testing.

For more information on running load tests on cloud computers, see About Load Testing on Cloud Computers.

Note: If a proxy server is used in your cloud or virtual environment, to simulate virtual users via that proxy, configure the Network > Proxy options in LoadComplete on your master computer (the one from which you control the test runs), and then enable the Simulating > General > Agents > Use proxy settings for remote agents option in LoadComplete.

See Also

LoadComplete Remote Agent Reference
Distributed Testing
Using LoadComplete on Cloud Computers
Tips on Simulating Users in Distributed Tests

Highlight search results