How to add lab process step that starts a RDP session? - visual-studio-2010

Im working with VS2010 and TFS and the Coded UI tests (CUIT).
I created some CUIT and added them to several Test Cases in Microsoft Test Manager 2010.
These tests are executed in our build-deploy-test steps.
This looks as follows (simplified):
Build application
Deploy
2a. Set snapshot of the Virtual Machine to which the application will be deployed to the snapshot in which the application is not installed
2b. Install application
Run tests
Step 3 contains Coded UI tests, but they cannot be executed (will fail), since there is no active remote desktop connection, which they need to be executed.
Now I would like to add a build step 2c. That automatically connects to the Remote Desktop so that the Coded UI Tests kan be executed.
How should I create this step in the Process Template?

I attempted this myself by running a PowerShell script to connect to a machine via Remote Desktop (see here to see how to use the Remote Desktop command-line utility).
This didn't really work for me personally because I was running this script from the build machine - which I could only connect to via Remote Desktop - and so when I close Remote Desktop it would close the session on the build machine and thus I would not be able to obtain a remote desktop connection with my test environment (plus it wasn't ideal to have to launch Remote Desktop from the build machine).
Therefore, the solution I went with instead was to enable auto-logon on the test environment (there are various ways to do this, I can't remember how I did it, but it's easily Googled).
So in my PowerShell script, which launched from our build machine, I used a command to remotely restart the test environment. With auto-logon enabled, the test environment would start back up with an active session, then I could carry on with Visual Studio Coded UI testing. This worked for me without any issues.
The command I used was something like this:
Shutdown.exe /r \\mytestenvironment
Here is some documentation for it.. If you intend on using this command to remotely restart a computer, don't forget to give your machine permissions on the test environment, otherwise this command won't work.
I then launched a command to sleep for a few minutes, to give time for the remote test environment to start back up again (with an active session), then I launched the tests.
Personally, I used a PowerShell script but you could also use a DOS/Batch script if you are more familiar with that.
Also, are you trying to run the automated tests as part of a build process template?
Let me know if you need any further help.

Related

Using GitLabRunner to execute GUI tests on windows with permanent active user session

i'm having issues to get a permanent active user-session on my virtual machine to execute gui tests developed with the functional testing tool Ranorex Studio via GitLab-Runner (Windows / Shell). The testsuite is based on a .NET solution which is built via MSBuild.exe and the output (bin/debug/*.exe) will be executed with some parameters via command line.
Procedure:
Start gitlab-runner via PowerShell as administrator with "gitlab-runner run" command
Make some changes in GitLab-Repository to start the pipeline via .yml-File
Ranorex test-project is built successfully and is starting the GUI-tests
In the first run the user session is active and the tests are going to be executed and interacting with the GUI, but when i try to trigger the pipeline again for further runs, the user-session turns to false and there is no interaction with the GUI (black sceenshots in test-report).
Already did:
Screensaver disabled
StandBy-Mode disabled
User-Access-Control on lowest setting
Lock-Screen disabled
Secure-Login disabeld
Remote connections enabeld
Ports openend
Keep Session open via .batch-File, when closing RDP-connection
GitLab-Runner Service => Log on with respective AD-User (equipped with admin-rights)
AD-User is alway logged in on virtual machine
With Jenkins (Master / Slave configuration) everything works fine
Would be grateful for any help!
Does your Ranorex process close down properly with an exit code? Does the Application Under Test also close down properly at the end? I am assuming something has locked - you could try a bit of Powershell to close the processes before a test run. One thing I had to do was keep the screen on - using a utility like 'Caffeine'.

Reporting status back to TeamCity when a test is ran locally

We have a testing framework made in AutoIt for our Windows apps (older legacy apps that we will continue supporting). These have never been run on a schedule or part of CI (always been run manually). I tried to get some kind of auto run (or even just status reporting) out of the tests, with minimal luck.
I have a VM where the tests can run. I experimented with my own web app, which works okay locally for running and status reporting. But when set up on the server, AutoIt reports it cannot open the application. Same thing happens if I try to run the tests from a .bat file.
My current solution is to have AutoIt call my web app to report status (working okay locally, untested on the server), or to see if I can get AutoIt to report results back to TeamCity. I have the agent installed but when I run the build from TeamCity, AutoIt reports it can't launch the application. I tried this while logged into the VM, logged out, with RDS open; no luck.
Is it possible to run the tests manually from the VM and send results back to TeamCity? When I run them from TeamCity it reads the AutoIt output (which is in the expected format), but I need to let TeamCity know to update the results (so we can use TeamCity rather than my web app to show the results).
I may need to find a way to let TeamCity know a build has been started, which might then let it know to keep an eye on the process' output, but I'm not positive. Any ideas?
I solved this so it could be done more traditionally.
If anyone is confused by what "running the agent from the console" meant, it just means installing the agent without selecting the "as a service" checkbox, and then manually starting the agent by cd'ing to the BuildAgent/bin directory and running the command agent start. I also created a batch file that will do this automatically (but you must run it as admin).
Further, I found AutoIt couldn't do anything if the test doesn't run from the right directory, so I had to devise a solution to this.
The only issue now is that I have to have an old laptop always connected to the virtual machine the tests and app run on (since the AutoIt tests won't work without the VM desktop being interactive).

Why my windowtester tests are failing in jenkins server slaves

My Window Tester UI Tests(All the tests which has error dialogs and error messages in in RCP Application) are failing in Jenkins server, but they are passing in my local machine.
Is there anything to do with machine configurations, like based one executors?
if the machine configurations doesn't matter why they are not failing in my local machine?
You are probably not running your Jenkins server in a desktop session, meaning that it does not have access to your GUI (e.g. it can't launch anything that pops-up a window or a dialog).
So you either need to start the Jenkins master manually from the command line or allow it to access the GUI if it's run as a service.
See also these two related topics:
How to run GUI tests on a jenkins windows slave without remote desktop connection?
https://serverfault.com/questions/285065/gui-tests-in-hudson-jenkins-on-windows

How to run White + Teamcity (Winforms application)

I'm trying to run UI-tests (written using white). When I run them using NUnitConsole everything works fine. When I try to run them using TeamCity I get the following exception Test(s) failed. White.Core.UIItems.UIActionException : Couldn't find window with title Form1 in process 4132, after waiting for 5000 ms. What might be wrong? What could I do to make the test pass?
Not only does the build agent need to be set to interact with the desktop, but the desktop must be displayed in order for UI automation to work - desktop cannot be locked and screen saver must not be running. Is your agent on a headless machine? If you are using RDP to connect to the agent to check on things, when you close RDP, it locks the desktop. In this case, the automation will fail. Instead of using RDP, use a VNC viewer to log on to the box, rather than RDP, as VNC will not lock the desktop when you close it.
Another issue to consider is network access. If you are running TC agent as a service with access to desktop, then it will be running under service account which will not have access to network shares, etc... If this is a probelm, then you will not be able to run TC agent as a service, and will instead need to logon with a domain user and kick off the agent.bat file to start the agent.
Spent a lot of time solving this issue.
Main steps:
You need separate computer with teamcity build agend installed on it. Computer should have monitor and mouse.
The agent SHOULD NOT be launched and run as a Windows service (disable it if needed).
You should launch TeamCity build agent from .bat file (as administrator). To do this go to TeamCityBuildAgentfolder\bin and launch agent.bat file with start argument
Disable computer's screen sleep/lock after certain period of time. Your tests will require desktop for UI manipulations.
If you done everything right you should be able to see your build agent active in TeamCity's "Agents" menu.
You can also automate TeamCity agent launch (at selected user's logon):
Automate user's logon. More instructions here
Create task in Task Scheduler which will launch build agent at user's logon with administrative rights (with highest privileges)
Make sure that the user who will logon automatically has all neccessary permissions (run the scripts, perform file operations etc.)
IMPORTANT!
Running UI tests in such way is a potential security hole so make sure that the non-authorized people have no acccess to computer that runs this tests.
Remember that for running your UI test the computer SHOULD NOT be locked or be in sleep mode.
You probably have to make the Teamcity build agent interact with desktop.
Run -> services.msc -> Select TeamCity Build agent and right click -> Properties -> Log On tab -> Check "Allow service to interact with desktop"
Edit:
If that doesn't work, stop the agent service, go to Build Agent folder ( c:\teamcity\buildagent\bin ? ) and issue agent.bat start and then trigger the tests.
There is recommendation to run the UI tests on virtual machines.
Seems as most reliable solution.

Slow UI tests run from Jenkins

I am using Jenkins as my CI build server. After a build of our software is complete it starts up the automated tests on a slave machine. The tests that use a web browser run at a very good pace, the tests that run on two different local applications run very slowly. It takes about 3 seconds between each keystroke.
If I start the tests manually through Visual Studio 2010 on the same slave machine the local application test run just fine (fast keystrokes).
Any idea why the local apps are so slow when run through Jenkins?
I'm not sure if this is the same case, but we had similar issues with an automated UI test, and found that we must have a real session open on the slave running the test. NOT RDP.
We did this by using VNC to login to the slave and leave the session open.
I hope this helps.

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