Knowledge Base

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Use the Grid Manager to manage the elastic, cross-cloud computing resources, used in one or more load tests, for a given Grid. The Grids Manager is used to setup and view SOASTA CloudTest cloud-computing resources, as well as Test Server and Results Server instances that are used to generate load. You can easily create one or more Grids for use in tests then deploy cloud resources and match those with SOASTA CloudTest Test Server instances. Prerequisites Define at least one Server and one Location before attempting to create or manage a Grid. Typically, there will be more than one location or server (or more than one of both)
Open an Existing Grid To get started, select Central list > Grids. Select the grid to open in the Grids list select and double-click. The Grid Manager opens to the Summary and Deploy/Tear Down page. This page shows the current facts about the Grid. The grid can be revised by clicking the left arrows to browse settings.
Use the top section of the Summary and Deploy/Tear Down page to review this Grid's settings. It may also be necessary to review the Server Instances page before returning to this page to use Deploy Instances. To review the Grid's settings, do the following: Click the left arrow to return to the prior screen(s) to change Server Instances settings for this grid (either by adding or removing Locations, or by changing advanced settings per Location. To change the Location name, click the left arrow twice to display General settings Ensure that the locations, and settings for Test Server and ResultsService instances are correct per location Test Server instances generate load, while Results Service instances analyze and report on the test data in real-time To change the Locations, Test Server Instances, or ResultsService Instances, click the left arrow once to display the Server Instances page Note: Locations are configured in advance in Central list > Locations. See Using Locations and then add them to the Grid.
To add an existing Location to this Grid, click the left arrow to view the Server Instances page, and then click Add a Location. When you do so, the new location is added to the existing form at the bottom. Select from the drop-down in the new location area to specify a location other than the one shown.
Optionally, revise the number of Test Server instances to be created per Location, or select a Composition(s) to automatically determine the number for you. Define Result Server instances per Location as a ratio to Test Server instances or as a Fixed Amount. Click Select Composition(s) to use the settings from one or more test compositions.
Optionally, in the Server Instances page, check Show Advanced Settings (per Location) to perform any of the following tasks: To specify server classes for Test Server or Results Service instances Configured Server Classes can be selected from the Server Class drop-down. See Server Classes. To specify a zone in which servers will be launched With the default Zone Distribution > All in the Same Zone radio button checked, select a zone from the available zones in the drop-down. Optionally, check the Failover to different zone(s) if initial allocation fails box if you want CloudTest to use different zones on retry. To switch from the default server allocation algorithm (which tries to allocate servers all in one zone and only when it cannot switch to another zone) to another algorithm that will get servers in groups of 25 doing round robin on all of the zones Check the Distribute evenly across all zones box to use the alternate round-robin algorithm for server instances.
Depending on the Location selection, some additional options may appear. For example, for Amazon EC2 locations.
For Amazon EC2 the grids will by default automatically choose the EC2 availability zone for new instances via the Let the cloud provider pick the zone for me option. This can reduce the time needed to allocate large numbers of instances. To override this behavior, and specify a zone, click the "Show advanced settings" box in Step 2 of the wizard and then select a different Zone Distribution option instead.
To specify a zone in which servers will be launched With Zone Distribution > All in the Same Zone radio button checked, select a zone from the available zones in the drop-down. Optionally, check the Failover to different zone(s) if initial allocation fails box if you want CloudTest to use different zones on retry.
To switch from the default server allocation algorithm (which tries to allocate servers all in one zone and only when it cannot switch to another zone) to another algorithm that will get servers in groups of 25 doing round robin on all of the zones Check the Distribute evenly across all zones box to use the alternate round-robin algorithm for server instances. Click the right arrow to go to Step 3. The Summary and Deploy/Tear Down page appears.
Click Deploy Instances when ready. A spinner will appear while the default monitor is starting and stops when that phase is complete. The green checkmark appears only when default monitoring is deployed.
The Grid Ready icon will display when the requested servers are allocated successfully. For example, 10 0f 10 allocated Test Servers were successfully checked and allocated below.
The Grid Ready, with failures icon will display whenever allocation and checking finished without getting all of the requested servers. For example, 2 of 10 requested servers were checked and allocated.
The Stopped icon will display whenever all of the requested servers failed to be allocated or the Stop Deploying button is clicked.
When grid use is complete, click the Tear Down Instances button. When you do so, the grid indicates progress in the status area of the Journal tab.