How to run GUI tests on a jenkins windows slave without remote desktop connection? - testing

Question

I have a jenkins agent set up on window 7 and a jenkins server on Linux. I am running GUI testing on the windows agent. It runs fine if I have a remote desktop connection connected to it, but fails otherwise. I found this link, Jenkins on Windows and GUI Tests without RDC
But the solution provided there is pretty vague.. It seems like the only solution is to somehow make Jenkins server to have a remote desktop connection open at all times. But I can't find such an option to do so.
Could anyone please clearly teach me how to solve this issue?
Much appreciated!

Answer 1

Your slave machines have to be at a desktop before the test can run
properly. We had the same problem.
Solution was to have the test machine start up and auto-logon to the
desktop. To ensure that the test would ONLY start after the desktop
was available, we added a scheduled task, set to run at user login,
that would launch the Jenkins slave via Java Web Start. That way,
Jenkins would only see the slave once the desktop was running. After
that, everything worked fine.
This is the winning answer to the question you linked to and it is very clear on what to do. The whole setup is outside of Jenkins. Jason Swager discribed on how he automated a user logging into a windows desktop machine and then starting the Jenkins slave in the user session.
And now Step by step:
1. make sure you have a GUI evailable
Solution was to have the test machine start up and auto-logon to the desktop
Configure a standard Windows desktop to login a specific user automatically when windows start. This way nobody needs to physically log into the desktop. (see How to turn on automatic logon in Windows 7)
2. start Jenkins slave
You need to start the Jenkins slave within this user setting. Otherwise, the Jenkins slave won't have access to the Windows UI components (or in other words can not interact with the desktop).
To ensure that the test would ONLY start after the desktop
was available, we added a scheduled task, set to run at user login,
that would launch the Jenkins slave via Java Web Start.
So you have to create a scheduled task and configure it to start your Jenkins client using Java Web Start.
3. use it
That way, Jenkins would only see the slave once the desktop was running. After
that, everything worked fine.
When the slave is online, you can use it to run your UI tests.

Answer 2

To solve it, set Windows Auto-Logon as I explain here:
https://serverfault.com/questions/269832/windows-server-2008-automatic-user-logon-on-power-on/606130#606130
Then create a startup batch for Jenkins slave (place it in Jenkins directory), which will launch it's console on desktop, and will allow GUI jobs to run:
java -jar slave.jar -jnlpUrl http://{Your Jenkins Server}:8080/computer/{Your Jenkins Node}/slave-agent.jnlp
(slave.jar can be downloaded from http://{Your Jenkins Server}:8080/jnlpJars/slave.jar)
EDIT :
If you're getting black screenshots (when using Selenium for example), create a batch file that disconnects Remote Desktop, instead of closing the RDP session with the regular X button:
%windir%\system32\tscon.exe %SESSIONNAME% /dest:console

Answer 3

The following thing did the trick for me:
In Jenkins execute windows shell command:
cmdkey /generic:TERMSRV/<servername> /user:<username> /pass:<password>
mstsc /v:<servername> /w:<width> /h:<height>
cd <path to your pom.xml>
<maven command>(e.g. mvn test -Dfiles_to_run=groupLaunch.xml
cmdkey /delete:TERMSRV/<servername>
It creates real mstsc session (Win-to-Win) with specified width and height in your virtual mstsc session (Jenkins-to-Win) powered by Jenkins.

Answer 4

I tried the solutions provided here but nothing worked for me. At the end, I came up with a workaround.
I opened an RDP connection to the VM in a different VM (VM2).
I left the first connection open inside VM2 and disconnected from it.
It worked but that implies having two virtual machines available.

Answer 5

You still need to use RDP but in my case, we can use loopback of the RDP in same VM.
The procedure:
In a VM, create two different accounts, and create Jenkins slave for both of account.
Now you'll have two Jenkins slave for two accounts in one VM
slave 1 - account 1
slave 2 - account 2
Enable multiple RDP follow guide
https://www.serverwatch.com/server-tutorials/how-to-enable-concurrent-remote-desktop-sessions-in-windows.html
In slave 2(with account 2), run rdp command to connect to slave 1(with account 1), like following
Start /b "" "C:\RDP\rdp.exe" /v:127.0.0.2 /domain:\ /u:admin /p:xxxx /fullscreen /w:1920 /h:1200
127.0.0.2 is very important, it's a loopback connection for RDP
Put above command into Jenkins job with the name such as "OpenRDP_ToVMXXX, and then you can run any test on slave 1 with GUI enabled, enjoy.

Answer 6

As the solutions above seemed a bit overkill, I used this approach:
Disable Jenkins service
Start Jenkins from command line using java -jar C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\jenkins.war
For some reason I had to install all plugins and everything when starting it this way, so I recommend creating a backup, there is a plugin for that. Good luck. :)