Server User Guide
Version v1.7.3

Session Management

A session is the connection between Alyvix Server and a Windows session you want to run Alyvix test cases on. Alyvix Server can manage multiple sessions for you, allowing you to define what you want to achieve and letting Alyvix Server take care of the details. That’s what we mean by scaling up – adding a lot more sessions doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot more of your time.

Session Management Settings

Assuming you’ve already created test cases with Alyvix Editor, when you first use Alyvix Server you’ll need to configure some basic settings.

The session management settings are global parameters governing all Alyvix test case sessions run on a specific Alyvix Server (that is, a single IP address). You can view or edit them by clicking on the gear icon at the top right, or going to the following endpoint in a browser on your private network:

Session Management Endpoint

Endpoint:

https://<alyvix_server>/settings

Example:

https://localhost/settings

These global test case settings are:

  • Test Case Path: A Windows-format absolute or relative path (e.g., C:\Alyvix\Testcases\) that points to a directory containing all of the Alyvix 3 test cases that can be run by this instance of Alyvix Server. If you add or update any test cases, or change this path, Alyvix Server will automatically and immediately pick up those changes.

  • Private Key: A cleartext private key that Alyvix Robot can use to decrypt any encrypted keys you have stored in an Alyvix test case when you created it.

  • Scheduling Period [s]: The length of time in seconds until Alyvix Server will restart the flow assigned to a particular session. The scheduling period is the same across all sessions on a given Alyvix Server.

  • Retention Period Success [d]: The number of days that successful test case runs will be stored and available for immediate inspection.

  • Retention Period Failure [d]: The number of days that failed test case runs will be stored.

The Settings interface allows you to modify global settings as well as settings for individual sessions:

The settings interface.

To set the values for any of these settings, go to the endpoint above, enter the new value in the appropriate field, and press the save icon to the right of the change you made.

The endpoint above also contains the settings for individual sessions:

  • Domain and Username: The Windows domain and login name that are needed to log in and keep alive a session on the server.

  • Password: The corresponding password.

  • Resolution@scaling factor: The screen resolution and scaling/zoom factor (e.g., 1280*800@100Hz) of the RDC window that will host the session. All test cases in the session’s flow should contain test case objects that include the resolution and factor set here.

To update these values, go to the endpoint above, enter the new value in the appropriate field, and press the save icon. The trash can icon will remove the corresponding session (the entire row), while the plus icon will insert a row for a new session.

Managing Session Test Cases

Test cases in the specified test case directory can be added to any session on the Alyvix Server containing them. However, just because a test case is stored in that directory doesn’t mean that it will be scheduled. It must first be added to the test case table by configuring it via the following endpoint:

Session Test Case Endpoint

Endpoint:

https://<alyvix_server>/testcases

Example:

https://localhost/testcases

Each test case can also appear multiple times in the test case table, including with different arguments to pass to Alyvix Robot. The first three settings create the schedulable test case configuration:

  • Test Case Name: The file name of a test case, which is located in the test case directory.

  • Arguments: Arguments that can be passed to Alyvix Robot when executing a test case, such as via the CLI, with values separated by commas.

  • Alias: The name of the schedulable test case configuration. While this can be any string you choose (unique with respect to other test case aliases), combining the test case name and an argument, or just the test case name alone, can aid understanding of dashboards and reports.

The test case interface.

The two screenshot settings on the right side allow you to configure:

  • Screen Recording:

    • Any Output: Take a screenshot once for each test case object.

    • Broken Output Only: Take a screenshot only when a test case object fails.

    • None: Never take a screenshot.

  • Screen Compression:

    • Lossless: Keep the original screenshot without compressing it.

    • Compressed: Compress all screenshots for this schedulable test case configuration.

The up and down icons allow you to change the order that the test cases will run in (echoed in the workflow table). The trash can icon will remove an existing test case configuration (the entire row), while the plus icon will insert a row for a new session. In the current version of Alyvix Server, you cannot modify an existing configuration; you will need to remove the row in question and re-add it.

NATS and InfluxDB Settings

In addition to configuring the session settings of a particular server via its IP address, you can also configure a session to forward the data to a NATS server and a particular InfluxDB data table, allowing you to view the data in Grafana . The resulting customizable graphs can interactively show the response times of individual steps reported by an Alyvix test case as in this example:

Example Grafana interactive graph.

Forwarding data to NATS is complementary – Alyvix Server will still continue to receive data, and it will still be visible via the measurement API.

To enable forwarding via NATS, you will need to configure communication parameters via the NATS/InfluxDB endpoint:

NATS/InfluxDB Management Endpoint

Endpoint:

https://<alyvix_server>/nats-influxdb

Example:

https://localhost/nats-influxdb

For each NATS instance you want to connect, you will need to fill in the following fields:

  • Profile Name: A unique name for a new NATS connection instance that you will then be able to assign to a given session.

  • Certificates Path: If you use TLS encryption, this will point to the directory containing your *.ca.pem certificate authority file, *.pem public key file, and *.key (not encrypted) private key file. If you leave this field blank, encryption via TLS will be disabled, and data will be sent in cleartext.

  • IP/Port: The address of the NATS server.

  • Subject Name: The InfluxDB database name to use.

  • Measurement Name: The name of the measurements table within your InfluxDB subject where the data should be stored when it arrives.

The NATS/InfluxDB settings interface.

Once you add a NATS configuration, you can assign it to one or more existing sessions using its profile name. Each session can stream to at most one NATS-InfluxDB channel, although multiple sessions can send data to a single NATS-InfluxDB channel.