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Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 4:21 pm
by JayDee
Hi all :) !

We use a Terminal Server to execute our automated scripts. So we have different sessions running parallel on this machine. For every session we use a double connection to redraw gui objects (same as vnc so no problems with a hidden or minimized remote connection).

But atm we are not able the execute more than one script because while one script is running, ranorex (2.8) is not able to reach any other gui element on any other session/desktop.

All used tools and the test object run in admin mode.

Where is our problem? Everything works fine but just until we catch a control...

Thanks so far and Greetz from Hamburg

Info:
Ranorex 2.8 (Professional)
Windows Server 2008 r2
C# .net 3.5
64 Bit

Re: Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:32 pm
by Ciege
Shot in the dark here, but could it be that Ranorex only operates on the console session?

Re: Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:01 am
by JayDee
hey ciege,

no it's just a typical remote connection coming from a xp machine. we don't use the console session at all. At least its an console application which runs ranorex but that should not be a problem??

greetings! :)

Re: Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:51 am
by JayDee
now i tried royal ts to connect my sessions and while session 1 is running with ranorex, i even can see the mouse movements from session 1 on the screen of session 2 :shock:

where are the guys who use several parallel sessions on a terminal server, is it possible at all??

Re: Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 2:15 pm
by Support Team
We have tried to reproduce that problem with a Windows 2003 Server machine. We also ran two session, but did not have any problems when running tests at the same time in both sessions; i.e. tests in one session did not influence the other session. The same is true when performing mouse/keyboard events manually, no influence on the other session - as it should be :-)

Maybe the issue is caused by the service session of the server? How do you start your tests, probably from a service?

Regards,
Alex
Support Team

Re: Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 4:37 pm
by JayDee
no services, we run our tests from common user sessions and ranorex will be initiated through a console application built in C#.

as i could see today we have a rds license server running but no rds-cal's installed. Could this be a solution for us?

Thanks and Regards, JayDee

Re: Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 4:07 pm
by JayDee
hey!

i have some new results ... took another terminal server (windows 2008 (without r2)) today and had exactly the same problems but in this case, we have our rds-cal's running...

i also could not highlight or track any element with rx spy while another testcase was running on a parallel session. Again no service sessions.

to use ranorex we implement ranorex & ranorex.core, use *.rxrep files so nothing special...


Best regards and a nice weekend :?

Re: Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:31 am
by Support Team
JayDee wrote:took another terminal server (windows 2008 (without r2)) today
We tried to reproduce that problem on Windows 2003 R2 Terminal Services and Windows 2008 R2 Remote Desktop services, but could not. Every remote desktop connection to the server runs as if running on a separate machine, with no influence on other sessions whatsoever. This is how it should be according to the MSDN documentation: every session has its own desktop, so it should not be possible to influence the other session at all (would be a major security risk otherwise).

So I still wonder how your remote desktop sessions can influence each other. Do you have some other remote access software like VNC installed on the server? Or some application monitoring user actions?

Regards,
Alex
Ranorex Team

Re: Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:09 pm
by JayDee
atm we use default microsoft remote desktop connections which come along with the os

i think tools like vnc are just viewers so we cannot open a session through vnc? what would be the most efficient way to handle our terminal sessions?

Best Regards! JayDee

Re: Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 5:36 pm
by Support Team
JayDee wrote:atm we use default microsoft remote desktop connections which come along with the os
We also did that on a Windows 2008 R2 test machine and it worked for us out of the box.
JayDee wrote:i think tools like vnc are just viewers so we cannot open a session through vnc?
Right, I just wanted to check that there is no such software installed on the server that might cause these session influences.

I really don't know what the problem with your remote desktop services are, sorry :? From our understanding and experience with test machines it should work out of the box with Ranorex installed on the server and a single Ranorex license applied to the server. Maybe someone else in the forums has an idea or a better understanding of Windows RDP services...

Regards,
Alex
Ranorex Team

Re: Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 12:00 pm
by JayDee
Hi all,

we could not solve our problems so far ... if we execute our scripts, the first user session starts ranorex.bitbridge32 for the current user. But if we wanne run another script with another session no additional bitbridge is listed in our processes.

Can the bitbridge32 be our problem? we have a 64bit system running so no way to avoid bitbridge??

Best Regards

Re: Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 12:51 pm
by Support Team
Hi,

I was able to reproduce it. It seems that the BitBridge can only be started once per machine and not once per session. We will try to figure out what this causes exactly and we will fix this.

Regards,
Peter
Ranorex Team

Re: Run parallel tests on a terminal server

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 2:16 pm
by JayDee
Now we have a running system...

we disabled BitBridge in RanorexSettings for every active session and re-compiled every solution that uses ranorex with x86 and now it works fine

Best Regards! :D