Upgrading Web Performance and Load Tests from Visual Studio 2010

Your existing Web performance and load tests that were created in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate will be upgraded when opened in Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate and continue to run. However, Web performance and load tests do include some client-side changes that you should be aware of.

Web and load test project

More than one test project type is available in Visual Studio 2012, including a new Web performance and load test project type. Any new Web performance and load testing efforts you create in Visual Studio 2012 are now created in a Web performance and load test project type instead of a test project. For more information, see Upgrading Tests from Earlier Versions of Visual Studio and How to: Create and Configure Test Projects for Automated Tests.

Running web performance and load tests

Visual Studio 2012 has deprecated the Test View window that you might have used previously to run your Web performance and load tests. To run your Web performance and load tests, you must now do so from either the Web Performance Test Editor, the Load Test Editor, or the LOAD TEST menu, as shown in the illustration below. For more information, see Running Load and Web Performance Tests.

Running Coded Web Performance Tests

In Visual Studio 2012, the Test menu that was in Visual Studio 2010 has also been deprecated. To run or debug your coded Web performance tests, you use the shortcut menu in the code editor.

Alternatively, with the coded Web performance test selected in the code editor, from the new LOAD TEST menu, choose Run, and then choose Select Test.

Warning

Selecting the coded Web performance test in Solution Explorer and using the LOAD TEST menu to run the selected test will run all the tests.

For more information, see How to: Run a Coded Web Performance Test.

In Visual Studio 2012, the Test View window has been replaced by Test Explorer, which provides for a more agile testing experience for code development for unit tests and coded UI tests. Test Explorer does not include support for Web performance and load tests. For more information about Test Explorer, see How to: Run Tests from Microsoft Visual Studio and Running Unit Tests with Test Explorer.

SQL Server 2012 versions

To use load tests, you can use SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB which is installed with Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate and is the default database server for load tests (including Microsoft Excel integration). SQL Server Express LocalDB is an execution mode of SQL Server Express that is targeted to program developers. SQL Server Express LocalDB installation copies a minimal set of files necessary to start the SQL Server Database Engine.

Note

If you upgrade from Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and SQL Server Express is detected with an existing load test database, Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate will try to connect to and use it. Additionally, if SQL Server Express is detected, Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate will try to create the load test database using SQL Server Express instead of SQL Server Express LocalDB.

If your team expects heavy database needs, or your projects outgrow SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB, you should consider upgrading to either SQL Express or full SQL Server to provide further scaling potential. If you upgrade SQL Server, the MDF and LDF files for the SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB are stored in the user profile folder. These files can be used to import the load test database to SQL Server Express 2012 or SQL Server 2012.

You can download SQL Server Express 2012 from the Microsoft Download center: Microsoft SQL Server Express 2012.

Upgrading test controllers

If you are using test controllers from Visual Studio for Web performance or load testing—these test controllers are not configured with Team Foundation Server—then the version of test controller must match the version of Visual Studio. For more information, see Upgrading Test Controllers from Visual Studio 2010 and Installing and Configuring Test Agents and Test Controllers.

See Also

Reference

What's New for Application Lifecycle Management Testing in Visual Studio 2012

Concepts

Visual Studio 2012 Compatibility

Upgrading Tests from Earlier Versions of Visual Studio

Testing Performance and Stress Using Visual Studio Web Performance and Load Tests

Testing the Application