Agent-Based Remote Execution

Agent-based remote execution allows you to deploy and run your tests on remote machines using a Ranorex Agent. You manage these agents and monitor test progress through the Remote pad within Ranorex Studio or via the command line.

The remote pad serves as the central control center for managing agents in your network.

You can open the remote pad in Ranorex Studio in two ways:

• Click the Remote pad symbol in the toolbar, or
• Navigate to View > Remote in the menu bar.

Before running tests remotely, you must add agents to the remote pad:

1. In the remote pad, click Add Ranorex Agent.
2. Install the Ranorex Agent on the target machine if you haven't done so already. For more information, see Ranorex Agents. The remote machine must be in the same network as the machine you are using the remote pad on.
3. Click Manage Agents….
   
4. Identify the agent in the Available Agents in your network list and click Add Agent, or enter the IP address or hostname manually.
5. Click Back to return to the control panel of the remote pad.
   

In the control panel of the remote pad, you can see the added Agent in its idle state, ready to be used for running tests.

Use the control panel to deploy and run tests on Agents. To do so, you first need to open a solution with a test suite project.

The control panel consists of the following elements:

1. Button to open the Manage Agents… screen.
2. Allows you to select the test suite/test sequence and specify the run configuration you want to run.
   If you select a test sequence, you can’t specify a run configuration. Instead, the individual test suites of the test sequence will execute in the run configuration that is active when you click the Run button next to an Agent.
3. All Agents you add to the remote pad.
4. Information that displays about the agent when you hover over it..

Once you add an agent, you can deploy and execute tests directly from the Remote pad control panel:

1. Select the desired Test suite(s) or test sequence.
2. Select a Run config from the dropdown menu, if possible.
   Note: Test sequences use the configurations active in the contained test suites at the time of clicking the Run button in the remote pad
3. Click the Run button next to the target agent.
   

Ranorex Studio automatically builds the project and deploys it to the agent. A progress bar in the Remote pad shows the current status of the deployment and execution. You can click the Stop button at any time to abort the run.

1. Ranorex Studio is creating an executable build of the test and deploying it to the Agent machine. The green status bar shows the progress.
2. Test execution has started on the Agent machine. The status message shows which test container is currently being executed and the clock symbol on the Run button indicates a test in progress. You can abort the test with the Stop button at any time.
3. Test execution has finished.
4. The Agent returns to the idle state. Click the button with the page and the numbered symbol to display the run history for this Agent.

The numbered symbol indicates how many test runs were completed since the last viewing of the run history. The symbol’s color indicates the success status of the test run:

1.  
   1. Green = successful test run.
   2. Red = test run with at least one error.

If more than one test run is queued on the Agent, a blue number over the Run button shows which test in the queue is currently being executed:

The run history tracks every test executed on an agent, regardless of whether you started it from the remote pad or the command line. You can review it by clicking the View run history option.

1. Filter categories for test runs. You can filter by success/error, test run initiator, and time.
2. List of executed tests in chronological order.
3. Clicking a run above displays details about it in this area.
4. From left to right: Opens the report, downloads the report from the Agent machine to the local machine, and deletes the selected history entry.

Note: The run history of an Agent shows all tests executed on this Agent, for example, even those that were not started from the remote pad, but from a command line interface.

You can trigger agent-based execution from the command line interface, which is ideal for incorporating Agent-based test execution into your continuous integration process.

Reference: See Command Line Execution for information about command line arguments.