Team Test Load Agent vs ACT

Team Test Load Agent vs ACT

• slee1435

  Will,

  The web/load testing tools in VS Team Edition for Software Testers (that's a mouthful) are completely new and distinct from ACT. ACT was the older web testing tool that shipped with VS 2003. We do not share any code or common file formats with ACT. There is really no scenario where I would recommend using ACT over the new tools. The new stuff can generate way more load, has a nice .NET API, and has many, many more features than ACT.

  VS Team Suite and the software testers edition come with a license to generate as much load as the VS machine can generate itself. You would use Load Agents to scale out the load generation to multiple machines. Load Agent is licensed per CPU.

  MSDN Universal subscribers get the option to receive one of the three VS Team System editions (Architect, Dev, or Test). VS Team Suite, which includes all editions, is an upgrade. Load Agent, like Team Foundation Server, is not included in MSDN Universal.

  I think I got all your questions answered, but please let me know if you have any more questions or if you need clarification about anything.

  Josh

  
  
  

• HarryKye

  >>> software testers edition come with a license to generate as much load as the VS machine can generate itself.

  If my team has two (or more) people with VS Team Test installed on their machines can they synchronise the testing to essentially double (triple, etc) the load that is acheivable with a single machine

  >>>Load Agent, like Team Foundation Server, is not included in MSDN Universal.

  I understood MSDN Universal came with TFS + licence for five Team Explorer (TFS Client tier) connections, but you needed to buy additional licences for larger teams. Is that correct BTW - do you know whether we can run such a TFS with Domains or are limited just to using Workgroups

  [Rant] This whole licensing thing is a bit of a mess. There should be an accessible route for people to grow their teams using VSTS. i.e.

  1. start from a sole developer who gets everything he needs by buying MSDN Universal (or whatever it's now called) - e.g.
  • Developer PC with VS Team Suite
  • Project Server with TFS
  • Build machine with Team Build + Visual Studio Team Tester
  • Domain server for creating VSTS accounts and running mail server
  2. expand your team by adding a few more developers, testers and architects who each buy MSDN Premium + VS Team Edition - limited to five people
  3. expand further by buying licence packs for TFS and additional subscriptions to MSDN Premium + VS Team Edition.
  4. [option] buy a licence for Load Agent when you webserver needs stress testing beyond that achievable from a single machine running Visual Studio Team Tester.

  I trust that this sort of growth is supported by the licensing arrangements, but so far I haven't found anything on the VSTS website that confirms this. It would clarifty matters greatly if Microsoft were to create some typical team scenarios together their licensing requirements / costs; starting with sole developers and moving to big teams. VSTS is a great product that really moves forward the whole software project environment paradigm and it would be a terrible shame if VSTS got viewed in the same way as Rational Rose, i.e. a product that's only fit for big corporations.[/rant]

  Sorry about the rant, but it's something I needed to say

  Will

  
  
  

• Roger Williamson

  Is Load Agent the official name of the product

  Can you install it on a PC without the need to install a TFS Client (Team Explorer) or anyother parts of VSTS

  I'm thinking that it might make sense to buy a cheap licence for Load Agent and install it on some low spec machine rather than buying a further expensive licence for Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers.

  Will

  
  
  

• BetterToday

  The only download listed is for the VS2005 Test Edition. This does not include the Load Test Agent software. Do you know of another link
  
  

• John230873

  Thanks for your feedback Will. On your first question, yes you could run simultaneous load tests from two machines. The downside is that the response time, load, and throughput won't be rolled up for both machines.

  Your licensing scenario is what we intended. Yes, TFS workgroup is included with MSDN/U: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/products/vsts/compare/

  The idea is you could use that edition to get started, and then move to the full edition as you add more users. We created the workgroup edition so we could reach small teams like yours. If your team grows beyond 5, you'll need to buy the full version of the server (which we also tried to keep the price down on). CALs to the server are included in the Team editions of VSTS. The paper is a good idea and I know we have people working on this type of content.

  Ed.

  
  
  

• Nathan Griffiths

  Will,

  Yes, you can install Load Agent (http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/products/vsts/load/default.aspx) on a machine without VSTS or Team Explorer. The Load Agent licensing is designed for exactly the purpose you described -- scaling out load on lots of machines without VSTS. A typical load testing lab setup would consist of some number of developer/tester machines running VS Team Suite (or Software Testers edition), a "controller" running the controller service included with Load Agent and running SQL server (could be express) for results, and then some number of machines running Load Agent. With this scenario, developers/testers submit their jobs to the controller and it fires up all the agents to generate load or run individual tests, whatever the case may be.

  Josh

  
  
  
• Team Test Load Agent vs ACT