Can Azure Automation be used to test running an application

Question

Hi,

I don't know much about Azure Automation at all but I need to find a solution where I can run a number of different applications from one or more on-prem servers and record the results.

For example, some servers might get patched and I want to be able to check that the application that relies on them still works so I want to run a hybrid runbook (probably?) to start the application, log in as a test user and then run a function within the application - say search for a piece of information from within the user interface that is part of the application being tested.

Ideally I would like to know if Azure Automation is the way to do this or if I should be looking at https://www.katalon.com/ or https://www.uipath.com/

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Answer 1

@MarkWoolaway-9275 As per my understanding from the description you have provided, you are looking for test automation frameworks for testing web applications. In my humble opinion, Azure automation isn't the service you are looking for. Azure Automation is mainly for process automation, configuration management, update management, shared capabilities, and heterogeneous features. Hybrid Runbook Worker feature of Azure Automation is to run runbooks directly on the machine that's hosting the role and against resources in the environment to manage those local resources.

If you have PowerShell script which automates your requirement to check the functionality of the web application then it is possible using Azure automation , however it isn't recommend for testing web applications.

If you are using Azure DevOps as your code repository, I would recommend to take advantage of Azure Test Plans for testing your web application which is suitable for your requirement.