Windows Azure: Automated UI testing using the power of cloud

Problem Statement

Automated UI testing needs to be performed from different parts of the world.

The tests can validate various UI behaviors from different geo locations e.g. behavior of JavaScript which makes service calls.

Background

As we have seen in my previous post on Performance testing using the power of cloud, it is possible to install test agents around the globe and run Load Tests from the agents. The same setup can be used to run unit tests or web tests by distributing them across different agents.

Challenge

The challenging part is to run UI tests (e.g. Coded UI) from the agents in cloud. This is because we will always need to have an active desktop session for the tests to interact with the UI. One option would be to have dedicated hardware on premise from where active remote desktop session is always maintained for all the agents in the cloud. The other option is to tweak the configuration a little as described below without requiring any additional hardware.

Solution

Perform the same steps which were done for the setting up the environment to run load tests i.e. Installing Test Controller on Premise and Setting up Windows Azure Connect.

Now below are the changes that the needed to specifically run Automated UI Tests

• Instead of having just one user on the Azure VM’s, we will need to have two users. One of them is used for Remote Desktop and the other one is used to Run Tests.
• The Remote Desktop user needs to be specified in the configuration file (.cscfg)

<Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountUsername" value="remoteuser" />

•  The Test Agent user needs to be created in setup.cmd (This user name and password should be the same as the one configured on Test Controller)

REM Create user vstestagent as an administrator

net user vstestagent <<password>> /expires:never /add

net localgroup administrators vstestagent /Add

•  Deploy the worker role and add it to the Local Endpoint Group for Windows Azure Connect as before.
• Now Remote Desktop to the Azure VM from the Azure Portal using the Remote Desktop user.
• Once connected, get the machine name of the VM from Computer->Properties.
• Go to Run and type mstsc and connect to the same VM using the machine name. While connecting this time, type the credentials of the Test Agent user.
• Configure the test agent with the test controller in Interactive mode.
• 
• Finally, a script needs to be run to turn off IE ESC, set default IE settings, turn off Phishing filter and disable Auto Lock. A command file can be added which does the following:
REM Configure IE ESC to Off
REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{A509B1A7-37EF-4b3f-8CFC-4F3A74704073}" /v "IsInstalled" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{A509B1A8-37EF-4b3f-8CFC-4F3A74704073}" /v "IsInstalled" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
Rundll32 iesetup.dll, IEHardenLMSettings
Rundll32 iesetup.dll, IEHardenUser
Rundll32 iesetup.dll, IEHardenAdmin
REG DELETE "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{A509B1A7-37EF-4b3f-8CFC-4F3A74704073}" /f /va
REG DELETE "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{A509B1A8-37EF-4b3f-8CFC-4F3A74704073}" /f /va
REM Set Default IE Settings
REG DELETE "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main" /v "First Home Page" /f
REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main" /v "Default_Page_URL" /t REG_SZ /d "about:blank" /f
REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main" /v "Start Page" /t REG_SZ /d "about:blank" /f
REM Disable Phishing Filter
REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\PhishingFilter" /v "ShownVerifyBalloon" /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f
REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\PhishingFilter" /v "Enabled" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
REM Disable Auto Lock
REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v "DisableLockWorkstation" /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
• Now don’t minimize any remote desktop windows and simply close the remote desktop window of the Remote Desktop user. This way the Remote Desktop window of the Test Agent user will be always active and the UI Tests can interact with the desktop.
Result
Now you can run your tests using the Test Controller. The Agent running as an interactive Process should be shown with an asterisk (*)

The Automated UI Test runs on the Test Agent

To confirm that the desktop doesn’t get locked, wait for 10-15 minutes, rerun the automated UI test and verify that it passes.