Load Test Settings

Test Settings

The Settings tab contains all settings for the test run. Some of these are mandatory, you need to set them before the test run can be started.

Load Profile

Under Load Profile you can override the settings in your test suite for the test properties file to be used. In addition to that, you can override the settings for test duration, ramp-up time, shutdown time, and load factor.

The load profile settings are only needed if you want to override your test suite settings for some reason, e.g. quickly changing the test duration, ramp-up times, or load factor without pushing changes to the repository, or switching between your prepared test property files. If the fields are left empty, the settings in the test suite will be used.

When overriding the load profile settings for a particular load test, you must specify a value for each parameter, including the ramp-up and shutdown times. Load Factor formulas are only allowed if ramp up time equals zero. The resulting load curve is shown in a graph next to the settings then:

Overwriting the Load Profile with a Load Function

Learn more in our Load Testing section about configuring load profiles for your test run.

Properties

In Properties and Secret Properties you may overwrite properties for test execution. Values set here take precedence over the project-level settings (which may in turn be inherited from the organization).

Load tests can choose whether to inherit project-level properties. In either case, the load test can still define its own properties, which will overwrite project-level properties if they share the same key. Properties that are not set in XTC will be read from the project data.

Repository

Under Repository you can enter a branch of the project repository to be used for this test run. This is only necessary if you want to use another branch than the one you configured for the project. If this is left empty, the project or default branch will be used.

Code Archive

Under Code Archive you can configure your load test to run using an uploaded ZIP archive instead of Git. You can select either a specific version of your uploaded archives or choose Use Latest to automatically run with the most recently uploaded archive.

Note that using a code archive must be explicitly enabled for the load test. For details on how to manage and upload archives, see Code Archives.

Machine Configuration

The most important (and mandatory) part of the test setup is the configuration of the test machines to be used. The machines and machine settings to use for a load test can be found in the Machines tab.

The machines to be used can be selected from public cloud machines (Amazon Cloud Machines, Google Cloud Machines, or Hetzner Cloud Machines), custom machines, or your own private machines (or you can use a combination of these).

If you want to use machines in the Amazon/Google/Hetzner Cloud, you just enter configuration details and the selected machines will automatically be started prior to the load test and terminated afterwards by XTC. To edit the cloud machine configuration, click the editing button next to the headline. There you can

• specify which regions the machines should run in (you can pick several, the machines will be spread over the selected regions as evenly as possible),
• pick an instance template for your machines, depending on how much computing power you think you’ll need,
• select the number of machine instances to start (instance count), and
• select the number of agents per instance.

As test sizing is a whole topic in itself, you might want to check the CPU usage after your test and maybe adjust the number of machines for the next test run.

Private Machines

If private machines are enabled for your organization, you can specify the required number of private machines of a specific capacity class in the Private Machines section on the Machines tab.

When the load test is started, XTC searches for the requested number of online private machines of the specified type and reserves them for the duration of the test. If not enough private machines of that type are registered and online, the test will fail to start.

For details on how to set up and register your own private machine infrastructure, see Private Machines.

In Common Machine Configuration you can enter a password for the communication between the master and all agent machines (a random password will be generated by default). You can also override the default XLT execution environment version in this section.

Notifications

XTC can notify users whenever a load test changes its state.

Here’s how you can set up notifications:

• Via Slack: To receive Slack notifications, configure the Slack Integration for your project. XTC will then send updates about the load test’s state (start, finish, error, report available, etc.) directly to the Slack channel you’ve specified.
• Via Email: If you prefer email notifications, go to the Notifications section of the Settings tab on the load test’s details page. You can then add a custom list of email addresses that XTC will notify when the load test finishes. To disable notifications again, just clear the address list.