Test automation on Virtual Machines
Hi,
I'm looking for any alternative methods to perform our nightly automation testing.
Our current train looks like this:
1. Tests developed on my local PC are pushed to an Azure Repository.
2. In DevOps we have a Pipeline task 'TestExecute test adapter installer' that triggers the test suite to run overnight.
3. Our target TestMachine is a VM with TestExecute deployed and an Agent listening for work from the DevOps pipeline.
4. We RDP to the TestMachine and can watch the tests executing. So far, so good.
5. The problem occurs when the Machine used to RDP to the TestMachine invokes its screen saver or powers down causing the tests to fail. Our current RDP machine had the Power & Sleep settings set to 'Never' but it was still going into sleep mode. (I'm currently trialling a work around that involves an easy fix to a registry value to expose the 'System Unattended Sleep Timeout'; that was set to 15 minutes; in Advanced Power Options https://windowsreport.com/windows-10-goes-to-sleep-after-2-minutes/ ).
If the work around fails, and I have to eliminate using RDP, what are my other alternatives(if any) to run automation on the VM. Relocating TestExecute onto a physical machine is not an option.
Also, if anyone has had a successful outcome using SessionCreator on remote virtual machines, I would dearly like to hear from them.
Thanks
Mark
Hi Everyone,
Alex, you've stolen my thunder 🙂 I was just about to report our success with tscon. We ran the command manually on the RDP machine which 'shut' it down while the Agent was 'listening' for work. Our next step will be to create the batch file to run the tscon command and include it in the nightly pipeline.
So, to run this command (as Alex says, run as an administrator ) within the RDP window, from the Command Line.
>query user (this will return the sessionname eg rdp-tcp#xx)
>tscon.exe rdp-tcp#xx /dest:console
respond "yes" to to close your session
...all done
