Usage of "Run Time" option on the "Time Settings" section

[Guest praveenpverma]

Please refer to the Test Volume section under the Scenario node for this issue, screen shot below (or the attachment):

 

 

I run a test for, say, 30 users using the options "Number of user sessions to complete" and the "Fixed user load option". The test execution completes in 3 minutes and I get the results. Now, if I want to test using a ramped up load then I think I would necessarily need to select the option "Run time" (please correct me if I can do the same by selecting the number of session's option). Now, I set the option to increase the number of users from 0 to 30 with a step of 3 after every 3 seconds. So, the user load would be equal to 30 users in a span of 30 seconds. I set the Run Time to 1 hour. Now, when I execute the test then it continues to run for 1 hour although the actual execution should have taken much less time (as 30 simultaneous users were able to complete the task in 3 mins).

 

So, my question is why the test continues for 1 hour when it should have been completed in less than 4 minutes. Are the page requests repeated again and again iteratively until the time cut off is reached? Or else how is it managed? And what does the response time in this case signify?