Getting started with the LoadGen Platform

This article takes you from a freshly deployed LoadGen Load Testing and Monitoring Platform to your first completed load test, and then points you to the monitoring features. Follow the steps in order: each step links to the page article that documents every control and workflow in detail.

If you first want a tour of what the platform can do, read What is the LoadGen Load Testing and Monitoring Platform?

Before you begin

• A deployed LoadGen Appliance. If you have not deployed one yet, start with the LoadGen Appliance Overview, check the system requirements, pick the deployment guide for your platform (VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, VirtualBox, Azure, or AWS), and complete the initial setup, including changing the default security tokens.
• A valid LoadGen license with the module permissions you plan to use.
• A user account on the platform. Administrators manage accounts and roles on Operations: Permissions; if your organization uses single sign-on, providers configured on Operations: SSO Providers appear as sign-in options on the login page.
• One or more machines where LoadGen Agents can run, with network connectivity to the platform.

Step 1: Sign in and orient yourself

Sign in and look at the Home dashboard. The four KPI cards show Active Users, Test Status, Total Runs, and Agents; the Load Testing and E2E Monitoring panels summarize both feature areas and show your licensed capacity. From here you can reach everything this guide uses.

• Main: Home

Step 2: Verify your license

Open Infrastructure: Licensing and confirm the modules you need are licensed, with the expected capacity limits and expiration dates. You can refresh license data from LoadGen Cloud here.

Step 3: Connect your LoadGen Agents

Agents are the machines that generate the load. Register them under Configuration, LoadGen Agents, and verify they report as connected before testing:

| Agent type | Port | Use it for |

|---|---|---|

| Full Agents | 4840 | Complete load generation: test execution, metrics collection, session management, monitoring profiles |

| Core Agents | 4850 | Basic load testing where advanced features are not required |

| VDI Agents | 4841 | Executing profiles directly on Azure Virtual Desktop and Omnissa Horizon machines |

The Agents KPI card on the Home dashboard should show your registered agents.

Step 4: Check your datasources

Test results, monitoring data, and analytics each go to a configurable storage backend. Open Configuration: Datasources and confirm each functional tab you plan to use (Testing, Monitoring, Insight, and so on) has a datasource. Supported backends include InfluxDB, SQL Server, CSV and JSON.

Step 5: Upload a workload

A workload is a LoadGen script file (.lgs) describing what a simulated user does, for example opening an application, logging in, and working through transactions. Upload and manage scripts on Configuration: Workloads, which tracks where each workload is used and keeps version history.

Step 6: Define test users and a scenario

• Configuration: Testing: Users is the user pool distributed across load generators during a test. VDI users carry full authentication credentials and domain information; Web users only need usernames.
• Configuration: Testing: Scenarios define the load pattern: phases that control when users start, how many are active, and when they idle or stop. Create a scenario and set it active for testing.
• Optionally, Configuration: Testing: Wait Events give you reusable timing markers that synchronize execution across scenario phases.

Step 7 (optional): Monitor your servers during the test

To measure what the load does to your backend, configure Systems Under Test. A SUT profile groups the machines where LoadGen Agents collect Windows Performance Counters (CPU, memory, disk, network) during test execution:

• Register machines once in the central pool: Configuration: Systems Under Test: Machines
• Group them into profiles attached to your tests: Configuration: Systems Under Test: Profiles
• Standardize collected metrics with counter templates and tune per-machine collection in PerfCounter Settings

Step 8: Create a load profile

A load profile ties everything together: the connection technology (such as Azure Virtual Desktop, Citrix, or RDP), user credentials, connection parameters, and the scenario to execute. Create one on Testing: Load Profiles.

If you test against virtual desktop infrastructure, first connect the environment on Configuration: Virtualization. For Citrix and RDS testing, see Configuration: Add-in Machines.

Step 9: Run your first test

1. Open Testing: Run Test, select your load profile, and review the scenario visualization and validation. Choose immediate or scheduled execution and start the run.

2. Follow the run live on Testing: Active Test: real-time performance metrics, error tracking, user activity, and operator controls.

3. When the run finishes, review it on Testing: Test Runs, filter for your run, and drill into the detailed results.

To repeat the test automatically, give the load profile a schedule and manage all schedules centrally on Testing: Schedules.

Step 10: Add continuous monitoring

With testing in place, the same platform monitors your environment continuously:

• End-to-end monitoring: create monitoring users under Configuration: End-to-End Monitoring: Users, define when tests should run with Schedule Definitions, then create a profile on End-to-End Monitoring: Profiles and watch results on the Dashboard. Remote agents can connect over outbound HTTPS using API keys from Platform Agents, no inbound firewall rules needed.
• Uptime monitoring: create availability checks on Uptime Monitoring: Checks and track status on the Uptime Dashboard. Failures open incidents automatically; planned downtime goes in maintenance windows.
• Alerting: set up delivery channels (Email, Webhook, SMS, WhatsApp) on Alerting: Triggers, then define when alerts fire with Alerting: Profiles. Email and Twilio accounts are configured under Configuration: Notification Accounts.

Where to go next

| Goal | Start here |

|---|---|

| Test your APIs functionally | API Testing: Flows |

| Track formal service level objectives | Service Levels: Dashboard |

| Analyze real user behavior and replay sessions | SessionSight: Dashboard |

| Monitor your test infrastructure's machines | Insight: Dashboard |

| See health across all features in one place | Analytics: Dashboard |

| Synchronize configuration across appliances | Sync: Overview |

| Automate the platform via REST API or AI assistants | LoadGen Developer & API Documentation |

For how the page articles themselves are organized (and where to find step-by-step how-to workflows on every page), read How to use this documentation.