PERFORMANCE TESTING FOR

CITRIX USING LOAD RUNNER

BEST PRACTICES BEST PRACTICES
Presented By
Rupesh Garg & Saket Bihari
Wipro Technologies.
ABSTRACT
HPs industry standard load testing product Load Runner has
been customized to support Citrix environments. This means
that customers can now accurately test and monitor their
Citrix-based systems to ensure high performance, scalability
and availability.
Load Runner works by emulating hundreds or thousands of Load Runner works by emulating hundreds or thousands of
ICA clients with just a handful of machines to create a scalable
MetaFrame XP load testing solution
This paper details the recording, replaying tips for Citrix
scripts using Load Runner and the Best practices that can be
implemented while Performance testing the Citrix clients.
INTRODUCTION
Citrix provides server and desktop virtualization, networking,
software-as-a-services (SaaS), and cloud computing
technologies, including Xen open source products
Citrix Terminology:
Citrix Server: Citrix Server work as a remote connection by users
and allows multiple users that allows multiple applications at the and allows multiple users that allows multiple applications at the
same time.
Citrix Farm: Group of citrix servers with a load balancer which
work as a traffic management in all servers using own effective
algorithms.
Citrix XenApp: A thin client product that allows users to connect to
their corporate applications. XenApp can either host applications on
central servers or allow users to interact with them remotely or stream
and deliver them to user devices for local execution.
Independent Computing Architecture
A protocol used to provide desktop virtualization across different
platforms but it is not bound to any platform. platforms but it is not bound to any platform.
Data transfers from the server to the client generally involve a high-
level view of the display rather than a full image of the screen,
dramatically saving bandwidth and reducing the dependency on
latency.
Utilizing this protocol, thin clients on a variety of end-user platforms
may access applications on a centralized server that may not
necessarily be supported on the end-user platform.
Recording and Validating the Citrix scripts
Citrix Recording Options:
Using Server Credentials with published applications or by using ICA
file.
If you have an existing .ica file (provided by Citrix
administrator/developer) with the entire relevant configuration
information, select Use ICA file for connection parameters.
Citrix Script Validation:
Citrix provides three types of mechanism for Script validation:
1. ctrx_sync_on_text
A synchronization function that waits for a specified string to appear
at the specified position before continuing.
2. ctrx_sync_on_window
It is a synchronization function that waits for a window to come into
existence or become active.
3. ctrx_sync_on_bitmap
It is a synchronization function that waits for a specified bitmap to
appear before continuing. The function can be manually recorded
by clicking on the rectangle icon in VuGen's Citrix recording toolbar.
Common problems encountered while running the
scripts
Issue:
Error: Connect cannot be established - Last Error=70, Last
client error=1030
Error: Failed to create channel agent
Solution: The above mentioned error usually can be resolved by
clearing the citrix client cache and registry, and re-running the citrix clearing the citrix client cache and registry, and re-running the citrix
registry patch.
Steps for Clearing the citrix client cache and registry
Close all the citrix based applications.
Exitfrom "citrix program neighborhood agent.
Right click on the citrix program neighborhood agent icon and select
"Exit".
Run command regedit
My Computer > HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software>Citrix
Delete Citrix Folder
Delete Citrix Folder - right click Citrix folder and select Delete
Click Yes to 'Confirm key Delete' alert message.
If c:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data has
ICAClient and/or Citrix folders, delete these folders.
Reboot the machine.
Run LRCtrxClient10Support_enableVC.reg citrix client loadrunner
registry patch.
Best Practices:
1. Pre-Recording tips
2. Recording tips
3. Replay tips
Pre-Recording tips:
In the recording options we need to specify the user name, password,
domain, connection type, citrix server name and published application.
To find out which server to hit, follow these steps: To find out which server to hit, follow these steps:
Open the application in Citrix - Right-click on Citrix Program
Neighborhood Agent icon and chose the desired application.
Get the server name - Right click on the Citrix Program
Neighborhood Agent icon and click on Connection Center.
Recording tips:
When recording a session, make sure to perform the complete
business process, starting with the connection and ending with the
cleanup. End your session at a point from where you could start the
entire process from the beginning.
Always make sure that your script is able to run for multiple
iterations.
Record the connection process into the vuser_init section, and the Record the connection process into the vuser_init section, and the
closing process in the vuser_end section. This will prevent you from
performing iterations on the connection process.
Try to use keyboard as much as possible, use mouse only when there
is no alternative for keyboard shortcut.
After every screen or step, apply text check. The function
ctrx_sync_on_text() can only be used if LoadRunner agent is installed
on the Citrix server. Here you cannot take image text from the screen.
Avoid using ctrx_sync_on_bitmap() for synchronization. It is because
synchronization on bitmaps can lead to replay failure if different
machine is used.
If you still need to use ctrx_sync_on_bitmap() then first of all check
for the consistencies between the recorded and replay machines: for the consistencies between the recorded and replay machines:
Window Size (resolution), Window Colors, System Font and the other
Default Options settings for the Citrix client. These settings affect the
hash value of bitmaps, and inconsistencies may cause replay to fail.
Replay Tips:
For best results, do not disable think time in the Run-Time
settings. Think time is especially relevant before the
ctrx_sync_on_window and ctrx_sync_on_bitmap functions, which
require time to stabilize.
After replay failure use different Login ID to login to the Citrix
Server. Since each login ID has some fixed specific session time
span, logging in with the same ID before the session time has
expired would cause to take the user to same screen where it had expired would cause to take the user to same screen where it had
left when the error occurred.
Use the function ctrx_set_waiting_time before wait functions to set
the desired waiting time as shown in below snapshot. The
parameters connect and waiting timeout in runtime settings apply
only for connection event and synchronization functions,
respectively and not for wait functions.
Script Enhancements:
To get proper response time for any particular transaction, keep
only the synchronization function inside it without think time in
between.
Use think time in between tabs to provide proper time for page
loading so that no events/hits are missed while replay.
In some Citrix sessions, the active window name changes while you In some Citrix sessions, the active window name changes while you
are recording. If you try to replay the script as is, the Vuser uses the
original window name and the replay may fail then in that case we
can use wild card (*) in the same place.
E.g.: ctrx_sync_on_window ("User *", ACTIVATE, 187, 83, 427, 351,
"snapshot1", CTRX_LAST);
Citrix agent Friend or Foe?
The LoadRunner Citrix agent was designed to make scripting
easier by recognizing objects. But sometimes when agent is
installed on the Citrix server, VuGen no longer works. Certain
windows in the application would not even pop-up when doing a
single mouse-click, and the only solution was to turn the Citrix
agent off.
If you get to certain screens and everything seems to run at a If you get to certain screens and everything seems to run at a
crawl, or it seems like your session is hanging, rename the
LoadRunner Citrix agent on the server to turn it off. Then record a
new script without it. If things are faster it may be the agent
causing the problem. As always, ensure the agent is the same
version as the rest of your LR software.
Lost in Citrix Error:
Following code is helpful when you are lost in a Citrix error where
expected windows are not appearing where they are supposed to, or
they are not the right ones. Many times this will help you expose
just what the window and X/y coordinates are that are causing a
problem.
At the top of the script initialize the variables, and when you get to At the top of the script initialize the variables, and when you get to
a portion of the code where a problematic window has been
stopping the script, place the ctrx_get_window_name
and ctrx_get_window_position right before it.
charwindow_name[100]; long xpos,ypos,
width,height; ctrx_get_window_name(window_name); ctrx_get_wi
ndow_position(window_name, &xpos, &ypos, &width, &height);
lr_output_message("Window = %s. x= %ld, y= %ld, width= %ld,
height = %ld", window_name, xpos, ypos, width, height);
The ctrx_execute_on_window is a great way to handle unexpected
screens that might appear anywhere in your script. If you know there
is a chance you will get hung on an unexpected screen, you can
always code a separate function to use some known key sequence
that can be used to get out safely (the example below uses the
ENTER key). A function called enterkey_form_handler has been
created and put into vuser_init section of the script in the VERY TOP
before the vuser_init() is made:
Intenterkey_form_handler(char win_title[]) { Intenterkey_form_handler(char win_title[]) {
ctrx_key("ENTER_KEY", 0, "snapshot130", CTRX_LAST);
return 0; }
THANK YOU THANK YOU