Scaling Selenium Tests

Here is my response to a message asking about Selenium support in TestMaker. -Frank

I was looking at your website and it is fantastic!  Your brief tutorial was detailed and gave an example of using Selenium to capture user experience.  I have two questions. In task 2 of testing an internet application you have “This makes  it easy to operate tests in a rack of servers to generate hundreds-to-thousands of simulated users and to run the test from several locations around a network or the Internet.”
1) How do you deploy this?  Are you installing selenium in each PC?
Frank’s response: TestMaker comes with Selenium fully integrated. You install TestMaker and TestNode software and it runs Selenium tests. TestMaker runs native Selenese tests using HTMLUnit, a headless Web browser with Ajax compatibility. TestMaker also runs Selenese tests in the real browser by using langtype=”seleniumrc” in the TestScenario.
2) Will each computer have a client that respond to a master computer to start testing?
Frank’s response: The TestMaker console is the master computer. Click the Start icon and it stages the test on multiple TestNodes. Everything is automatic.

2b) Selenium enables you to write test cases with java/perl/PHP and others.  Is each “client” one particular test case of either Java, perl, PHP or etc…?

Frank’s response: Selenium IDE lets you export a test to Java, Perl, PHP, and others. These are simple exports for a test that runs in Selenium RC. The Transformer Utility (in the Tools drop down menu) transforms Selenese files into Java or Jython unit tests that can then be run in Selenium RC or HTMLUnit. Runningn with HTMLUnit enables you to run Selenese tests as load and performance tests or business service monitors.

3) What is the maximum thread or concurrent usage that each “client” can handle?  E.g. If each client can handle 10 current threads, you would need 10 machnes (10*10) to simulate 100 simultaneous usage?
Frank’s response: A lot depends on the test. However, in my experience the average Intel 2 GHz Core Duo with 2 Gbytes of memory using TestMaker and HTMLUnit will run 200-300 tests concurrently. We’ve gone as high as 2400 tests concurrently. In TestMaker the larger the test you need the more TestNodes you apply.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 1:05 am by fcohen and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.