Setting up a Windows Selenium Browser Host
Selenium, browser automation drivers and the browsers themselves should be release-controlled so that tests are performed against a known, reproducible environment.
The pace of browser updates is so rapid that updating them (Firefox and Chrome specifically) is done at the beginning of each sprint. This requires preventing automatic updates.
Prevent Internet Explorer 9 auto-update to 10
Prevent Internet Explorer 10 auto-update to 11
Install Selenium and drivers in C:\devTools\selenium or similar easy-to-reach location that can be standard on all selenium hosts.
Keep previous versions of Selenium and compatible drivers in C:\devTools\selenium2.3x
Put downloaded Selenium, drivers and browser installers in C:\devTools\selenium2.3x++
Start Selenium via a batch file
ECHO on SET DIR=C:\DevTools\selenium SET JAR=C:\DevTools\selenium\selenium-server-standalone-2.XX.0.jar SET CONFIG=C:\DevTools\selenium\nodeConfig.json java -jar %JAR% -hub http://192.168.1.254:4444/grid/register -role node -maxSession 20 -nodeConfig %CONFIG%
Use a nodeConfig.json file
{
"capabilities":
[
{
"browserName": "*Firefox",
"maxInstances": 20,
"seleniumProtocol": "Selenium",
"platform": "LINUX",
"version": "latest"
},
{
"browserName": "Firefox",
"maxInstances": 5,
"seleniumProtocol": "WebDriver",
"platform": "WINDOWS",
"version": "latest"
},
{
"browserName": "IE",
"maxInstances": 5,
"seleniumProtocol": "WebDriver",
"platform": "WINDOWS",
"version": "latest"
},
{
"browserName": "Chrome",
"maxInstances": 5,
"seleniumProtocol": "WebDriver",
"platform": "WINDOWS",
"version": "latest"
},
],
"configuration":
{
"proxy": "org.openqa.grid.selenium.proxy.DefaultRemoteProxy",
"maxSession": 20,
"port": 5555,
"host": 192.168.1.157,
"register": true,
"registerCycle": 5000,
"hubPort": 4444,
"hubHost": 192.168.1.254
}
}
Pitfalls: Google does not provide standalone installers for Chrome so there is no way to roll back to a previous version aside from using VM snapshots. They appear to have eradicated any sources of old version installers that were around the net at one time.