Options for Visual Studio web performance and load test against a remote server

Question

I am new to Visual Studio Web Performance Testing and Load Testing. I am wondering what my options are for testing a remote server? For example, I am planning to deploy a ASP.NET site to Amazon Cloud. Configuration is 2 web front ends, 1 database server behind a load balancer. Can I run a web test/load test connecting to Amazon simply by configuring Visual Studio accordingly? Or do I have to set up a test agent on the web servers and configure that accordingly? I have tested the site locally (my development environment). Can I, instead of pointing locally, point to the url running on Amazon?

I know I can add a computer through LoadTest "Run Settings". Though, I do not think it is as simple as adding the remote server name here.

Answer 1

Yes, you can test against any URL that you can reach from your computer that is running Visual Studio. You simply need to parameterize the host url(s) in your webtest(s). Click the Parameterize Web Servers button in the web test editor toolbar to achieve this. Once parameterized, you can substitute different values by creating the same context parameters in your LoadTest RunSetting. LoadTest context parameters override WebTest context parameters.

Of course, you are still subject to whatever network obstacles and firewall rules that are in your way. For example, you won't be able to hook up to capture Performance Monitor data from the Amazon Cloud servers (or at least I presume that the relevant ports would be blocked).