Visual Studio Performance Testing Test Agent and Test Controller Connectivity issues checklist

In this post I'm suggesting some important points which you can consider as a checklist while considering Visual Studio (any version) for distributed performance testing.

In order to perform distributed(Remote Configuration) testing using visual studio, it is required to configure a test rig with Test Controller(Master) and Test Agent(Slave). At times, it requires enormous effort in getting the Test Controller and Agents connected with each other.

Checklist:

1.     Firewall should be disabled on all the agents and controller.

2.     Bind local (private IP) to QTagent.exe.config file in Test agent.
File can be found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE

3.     Bind local (private IP) to QTcontroller.exe.config file in Test controller.
File can be found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\

4.     Host file of controller should contain: Private IP, Host name (Computer Name) of all agents listed.

5.  Host file of agent should contain: Private IP, Host name (Computer Name) of Controller machine.

6.  All the Test controller and Agents should be part of same work group/Active Directory(AD)/Domain.

7.  All the Test Controller(TC) and Test Agents(TA) should use same user account (username and pass).

8.     If necessary, Network service account can be used instead of local Admin accounts.

Troubleshooting guide for TA and TC:

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/df043823-ffcf-46a4-9e47-1c4b8854ca13/troubleshooting-guide-for-visual-studio-test-controller-and-agent?forum=vststest