How to run unit tests (MSTest) in parallel?

Question

I am looking for ways to run test suites in parallel.

I am aware of .testrunconfig setting. This allows you to multiplex on the numb

Answer 1

The above answers definitely helped clarify things for me, but, this point from John Koerner's blog: https://johnkoerner.com/vs2015/parallel-test-execution-in-visual-studio-2015-update-1-might-not-be-what-you-expect/ was the bit we were missing.

"Parallel test execution leverages the available cores on the machine, and is realized by launching the test execution engine on each available core as a distinct process, and handing it a container (assembly, DLL, or relevant artifact containing the tests to execute), worth of tests to execute."

--> "The separate container bit is the piece I was missing. In order to get my tests to run in parallel, I needed to split up my tests into separate test assemblies. After doing that, I saw that the tests in different assemblies were running in parallel."

So yeah, we got the tests running in parallel in VSTS by using their handy 'run in parallel' flag, but it wasn't enough, we had to split our tests up into separate test projects. Logically grouped of course, not a project-per-test which would be ridiculous