Performance and load testing is a very important part of the application lifecycle. You’d want to do this every time before you deploy the latest changes to production. However, one of the biggest challenges with performance and load testing today is setting up infrastructure required to run the tests. Acquiring machines, configuring them with the right settings, and managing the test environment– all of these are no easy jobs and require significant time and effort.
Going forward, you do not need to worry about this problem. As announced by Brian Harry this morning, here’s introducing cloud-based load testing as part of Team Foundation Service. The service will take care of setting up the agents, deploying your tests, and running your tests automatically, so you can just focus on what matters the most – finding and fixing performance and scale related problems in your application.
Here are the key features of the service:
- Simple to use and get started: All you need to get started is a Team Foundation Service account. You can just connect to this account from Visual Studio and get started instantly. No more pre-requisites.
- Capacity on-demand: One of the important aspects of load testing is that you need to generate different amount of load at different phases in your application lifecycle to simulate real-world conditions. The load testing service is elastic and dynamic, and is designed for this scenario. i.e. whether you need to run a load test with 200 concurrent virtual users or 20,000 – you’ll be able to queue a test as per your requirements.
- Same tests work on-premises and on the cloud: The other important aspect is that the tests you have authored on-premises just run on the service - this includes the load tests, declarative web performance tests, coded web tests, and unit tests. This means if you have a load test project authored using Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Studio 2012, you can just run the same tests using the service and take advantage of the cloud.
Earlier today, I did a breakout session at TechEd North America where I showed how this capability works and talked a little bit about the architecture and roadmap. I'll update this post with the link once the recording for this session is available. For now, let us do a quick walkthrough of running load tests using Team Foundation Service.
- Configure test settings
Run your existing load test on the service with just one change in test settings. In Visual Studio 2013 Preview, you’ll find a new option to run tests using Team Foundation Service. You can target your load tests to run using the service by choosing this setting. That’s it – you are all set.
2. Run tests on the cloud
When you click ‘Run Load Test’, Visual Studio uses the existing connection to a Team Foundation Service account to automatically connect and run your tests on the service. The agents get automatically created and your load test starts running. You can view the progress of the run and monitor performance and throughput counters while the test is in progress.
3. Manage tests run using the service
Using the new Load Test Manager, you can view load tests run by any member from your team using the Team Foundation Service and review the results anytime from anywhere.
Next steps/How do I try?
Can’t wait to get started? You will be able to do so very soon. As announced by Brian, Visual Studio 2013 Preview will be available at the //build/ conference on Jun 26th. At that time, you will be able to try this out. Load testing will be open in Preview mode for all users of Team Foundation Service with a limited quantity per month. Try out the service and if you have scenarios where you'd need higher usage, you can join the early adopter program. Stay tuned for more details on the service and the early adopter program.
We'd love to know what you think. Keep the feedback coming.