Hi Patrick.
I have a question for the Windows Agent.
Which is the optimal/minimal Server Resources and Configuration to run the Agent?
Which is the better Windows Version to use?
For the machine specs it depends a bit on the OS but I usually assign 1GB of Ram, 20GB of disk and 1 CPU for VM’s.
As far as the best version of windows goes, 32-bit tend to work a bit better than 64-bit just because dummynet has a longer history on those and Windows 8 is evil (need hacks to get it to log in automatically to the desktop) but other than that it depends on what browsers you want to test.
Windows 7 or Server 2008 are generally good choices if you want to be able to test IE 9 or 10.
I’ve been wondering about disk space consumption, especially as it relates to video results. An average test result including the video file is about 1 MB. Default settings on the instance I use are for video to be enabled, 9 runs, with both first and repeat views.
So a rough estimate of the total number of tests that can be performed on a machine with 20 GB:
20 GB ÷ 18 MB per test ≈ 1100 tests
(a repeat view test is smaller than a first view test, but we’re rounding)
Sorry, those specs were for the agent. The server is going to depend on how much testing you do, if you record video and how many test agents connect to it. The server code has the ability to archive tests off to a separate path (mount) or to s3 so long-term storage doesn’t necessarily need to be on the server itself.