Visual studio load test simulate multiple users with one user

Question

I have a webtest in visual studio, which login to a website and does few clicks. I wanted to simulate this for 2000 users without having those many logins in a csv file or a database. Configured my webtest to run the test for 30 minutes by stepping 10 users every 10 seconds, its running fine for like 2 minutes and then failing after that with multiple errors. Is this possible at all ? If so how can i do this ?

Answer 1

A load test is intended to do what is stated in your question but there is too little detail in the question to give a good answer. Adding 10 users every 10 seconds means that after 2 minutes there have been 2*60/10 = 12 increments, so 10(users) * 2(minutes) * 60(seconds per minute) / 10(step duration) = 120 users. If it ran for the full 30 minutes then there would be 10*30*60/10 = 1800 users. Microsoft provide recommendations for how many users can be run by one computer and when to use additional agent computers. These are just starting points and do not take the details of the individual tests into account.

Rather than jumping in with a 2000 user test it may be better to start more slowly and establish, for a modest number of users that, the test suite works and also that the web site works. I suggest rerunning the test incrementing by 10 users every minute. Then after 2 minutes there will be 10*2*60/10 = 120 users. If that test works then decrease the step interval to (perhaps) 20 seconds.

The question does not state what errors are being generated. The actual errors need to be analyzed to determine the nature and location of the problem. It may be that a limit is being reached in some part of the server, the network or the computer running the test. When the limiting component is found then you know what needs changing.