StartSession Command Step in Configuration Wizard

A StartSession command opens a connection to a configured test device or to an IxLoad Tcl server (in the case of the default IxLoad session). On an established session, you can input commands to the test device or the chassis.

To add a StartSession command step using the GUI scripting support:

  1. While in the Script Steps pane, add a step by choosing the Actions > Add step... command.
  2. Select a StartSession command, click the button to validate the selection, and specify the following parameters:
    • Run Type: A StartSession step can only be executed sequentially (Sequential).
    • Delay: A delay specifying by how much step start is delayed. A delay value is automatically set when the step is added using the capture functionality.
    • Timeout: A period of time after which the step execution is considered to have timed out.
    • Ignore step: When this option is selected, the step is skipped at execution time. Selecting this option is equivalent to right-clicking a step in the Script Steps table and choosing the Exclude command from the context menu that appears.
    • Description: An optional step description can be associated with a step.
    • Click Next.

  3. Define the Conditional Execution settings as explained below.
  4. Conditional Execution settings enable you to define the system conditions a script step execution is monitored for. When such a predefined condition occurs – a step error or a step timeout – a user-defined procedure is executed and an additional action is performed. For example, on encountering a step error, you could enforce the execution of a cleanup procedure and then terminate the script.

    To monitor the step for a predefined Timeout or Error condition, select the corresponding condition, then define the associated procedure – local or shared (external) – by clicking the control of the Procedure field and selecting a procedure from the the drop-down pane that appears.

    For the selected procedure you can view its defined arguments by clicking the control of the Input Arguments field, which displays a cascading table-format pane containing the argument list. To specify the actual runtime argument(s) enter the desired values in the Current Value field(s).

    Configure an additional action by clicking into additional actions column and selecting either of the following options:

    • Continue: After performing the specified procedure, the script execution continues.
    • Exit Test: After performing the specified procedure, the script execution is terminated

    Whenever the step execution is defined for predefined events, an icon is displayed in the step's corresponding Events selected column entry. For information on turning on the displaying of the Events selected column refer to Customizing the Script Steps Table Layout.

    Click Next.

  5. Start defining a new device session by specifying a session name and configure an interface type and its parameters, spanning basic physical connectivity parameters such as IP address and port number, and more advanced parameters that specify, for example, what responses to expect from the configured devices. For a detailed description of parameters that need to be configured, refer to Configuring Session Parameters.
  6. Alternatively load an existing device session resource by clicking the Load from storage... button. When selecting a device session in the Open Device Settings window that appears, depending on the Open button selection mode, the session can be opened using either of the following modes:

    • Add to Session Step Local: The StartSession steps accesses a local copy of the session resource, meaning that session parameters are editable.
    • Add to Session Step Shared: The StartSession step accesses a database copy of the session resource with read-only parameters.
    • Click Next.

  7. Verify the step summary information and revert to a previous configuration step if needed. Click Finish.

In the case of Syslog sessions, the StartSession step returns the actual listening syslog port number. This value can be retrieved by assigning a step return variable to the step.