Set Up a Local Selenoid Hub

Last modified: April 18, 2024

1 Introduction

This how-to shows you an example of a simple setup of a Selenoid hub with a Chrome and Firefox node on a Linux machine with docker. This works on a Windows machine with docker as well, but the commands and configuration could be different. For the official project, go to https://github.com/aerokube/selenoid. For the official documentation, go to https://aerokube.com/selenoid/latest/.

It is possible to run Selenoid without Docker, but that is outside of the scope of this how-to. Please check out the official documentation if you would like to achieve this.

Mendix does not deliver support for local Selenium solutions.

2 Prerequisites

The following components are needed to set up a local Selenoid hub:

Some basic docker and docker-compose knowledge
A machine with the latest versions of docker and docker-compose installed
Your machine should allow connections from ATS on port 4444

3 Installing Your Hub and Nodes with Docker-Compose

The following steps describe how to install the hub and nodes with Docker-Compose:

Create a folder or a directory to place your docker-compose.yml and browsers.json files.
Create a folder or directory to place your video files.

Create a browsers.json in your folder/directory (/docker)

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  {
       "firefox": {
               "default": "58.0",
               "versions": {
                       "58.0": {
                               "image": "selenoid/firefox:58.0",
                               "port": "4444",
                               "path": "/wd/hub",
                               "tmpfs": {"/tmp":"size=512m"}
                       }
               }
       },
       "chrome": {
               "default": "65.0",
               "versions": {
                       "65.0": {
                               "image": "selenoid/chrome:65.0",
                               "port": "4444",
                               "tmpfs": {"/tmp":"size=512m"},
                               "shmSize" : 1073741824
                       }
               }
       }
}

Create a docker-compose.yml in your folder/directory (/docker)

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version: '3'
services:
 selenoid:
   network_mode: bridge
   image: aerokube/selenoid
   volumes:
     - "/docker:/etc/selenoid"
     - "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock"
     - "/docker/video:/opt/selenoid/video"
   environment:
     - OVERRIDE_VIDEO_OUTPUT_DIR=/opt/selenium/video
     - TZ=Europe/Amsterdam
   command: ["-conf", "/etc/selenoid/browsers.json", "-video-output-dir", "/opt/selenoid/video"]
   ports:
     - "4444:4444"

Open a console and give the following commands to pull the images first:

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sudo docker pull selenoid/chrome:65.0
sudo docker pull selenoid/firefox:58.0
sudo docker pull selenoid/video-recorder
sudo docker pull aerokube/selenoid

Open a console and give the following command from the folder/directory where you placed your docker-compose.yml:
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sudo docker-compose up -d Starting docker_selenoid_1 ... done

After it started, you can check the status of the container

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sudo docker-compose ps
     Name                     Command               State           Ports         
---------------------------------------------------------------------
docker_selenoid_1   /usr/bin/selenoid -conf /e ...   Up      0.0.0.0:4444->4444/tcp

To check the status of the hub:

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curl -s http://localhost:4444/status

{"total":5,"used":0,"queued":0,"pending":0,"browsers":{"chrome":{"65.0":{}},"firefox":{"58.0":{}}}}

4 Starting Testing

You can start testing by sending your test script to: http://yourmachinenameorIP:4444/wd/hub. Make sure it is reachable from the outside!

5 Recording a Video of Your Test Case

In case you want to record your test case as a video follow these steps:

Add a Custom Capability to your Selenium hub configuration: enableVideo with a Boolean set to true
Once the test case finishes you can find your video in: http://yourmachinenameorIP:4444/video. The video shows as “session-id.mp4”
(Optional:) You can give the video file a custom name by adding another Custom Capability: VideoName with a string, for example MyTestVideo.mp4 (don’t forget the .mp4!)

After executing the test case, don’t forget to download the video file or give it a different name in the next session, otherwise it is overwritten!

6 Optional: Installing a Hub with a Portal with “Live-View”

To install a hub with a Portal for “Live-View” you need a different browsers.json and docker-compose.yml file. To add a “Live-View” follow these steps:

Create a browsers.json with VNC browser image:

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{
       "firefox": {
               "default": "58.0",
               "versions": {
                       "58.0": {
                               "image": "selenoid/vnc:firefox_58.0",
                               "port": "4444",
                               "path": "/wd/hub",
                               "tmpfs": {"/tmp":"size=512m"}
                       }
               }
       },
       "chrome": {
               "default": "65.0",
               "versions": {
                       "65.0": {
                               "image": "selenoid/vnc:chrome_65.0",
                               "port": "4444",
                               "tmpfs": {"/tmp":"size=512m"},
                               "shmSize" : 1073741824
                       }
               }
       }
}

Create a docker-compose.yml with added selenoid UI for the portal:

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version: '3'
services:
 selenoid:
   network_mode: bridge
   image: aerokube/selenoid
   volumes:
     - "/docker:/etc/selenoid"
     - "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock"
     - "/docker/video:/opt/selenoid/video"
   environment:
     - OVERRIDE_VIDEO_OUTPUT_DIR=/docker/video
     - TZ=Europe/Amsterdam
   command: ["-conf", "/etc/selenoid/browsers.json", "-video-output-dir", "/opt/selenoid/video"]
   ports:
     - "4444:4444"

 selenoid-ui:
   image: "aerokube/selenoid-ui"
   network_mode: bridge
   links:
     - selenoid
   ports:
     - "8080:8080"
   command: ["--selenoid-uri", "http://selenoid:4444"]

Pull the images first

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sudo docker pull selenoid/vnc:chrome_65.0
sudo docker pull selenoid/vnc:firefox_58.0
sudo docker pull aerokube/selenoid-ui

Start the hub

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# sudo docker-compose up -d

Creating docker_selenoid_1 ... done
Creating docker_selenoid-ui_1 ... done

sudo docker-compose ps

        Name                      Command               State           Ports         
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
docker_selenoid-ui_1   /selenoid-ui --selenoid-ur ...   Up      0.0.0.0:8888->8080/tcp
docker_selenoid_1      /usr/bin/selenoid -conf /e ...   Up      0.0.0.0:4444->4444/tcp 

You can visit your portal on http://yourmachinenameorIP:8080
To enable “Live-View” you need to add another Custom Capability to your Selenium hub configuration: enableVNC with Boolean set to true
After starting your test case you can view your session in the portal:
By clicking on your session, you will be able to see your live view:

Congratulations you have finished setting up a local Selenoid hub. The next how-to is Use ATS in Combination with CI/CD. You find an overview of all the how-tos and the structure on the ATS 2 How-tos page. We advise you to follow the predefined structure.

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