Load Runner | Automation Dojos

Performance Testing on Firewall-Protected Networks

Tushar Sharma — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 06:29:32 +0000

Performance Testing on Firewall-Protected Networks | As Published On Automation Dojos

HP Load Runner is the most popular tool from HP for performance, load and stress testing tasks. Using the LR, you can check different aspects of performance testing on a native system or a remote system.

However, remote networks are always behind a firewall. When a firewall is used, it blocks the commonly used port 80. So, the LR controller cannot establish a connection with LR agents on remote systems. However, you can use MI listener to communicate with remote LR agents over a secure HTTPS connection using port 443.

How it works?

LR agents are installed on all remote machines wherein Vusers on load generators are running. Mi Listener is an effective tool that acts as a router to facilitate communication between the controller and the agent. When the agent connects to the MI Listener, it identifies itself with a unique name. This information is stored with the MI Listener. The agent uses port 443 to securely communicate with the MI Listener. On the other hand, the controller uses port 50500 to communicate with the MI Listener.

How to create this setup?

To facilitate performance testing over a firewall, you have to configure three components

Mi Listener
LR Agent
Controller

Step 1: Configuring the Mi Listener

First of all, you need to install two LR components namely Monitor over Firewall component and MI Listener component.
Open your firewall settings and allow connection between the two machines.
Open the MI Listener settings window
Change the port settings so that port 443 is open for traffic
Go to the system tray and stop the MI Listener from running.
Open advanced settings of the Mi Listener from Start -> All Programs -> Load Runner
There are two options. For the Check Client Certificate box, the default value is False. Change it to true so that the client has to provide secure SSL certificate so that the data is transferred on remote networks in a secure way.
For the Private Key Password option, the default value is None. Set a password so that SSL authentication is securely processed.

Step 2: Configuring LR Agents to run Vusers

On the LR agent machine, go to the system tray and stop the LR agent
Open the LR agent program by going to Start – > All programs – > Load Runner – Advanced
On the Agent Configuration window, Check the Enable Firewall Agent box and click on settings.
On the Over Firewall Settings window, You will find the following options:

Field Name	Default Value	Required value
Mi Listener name	None	Enter the name or the IP address of the Mi Listener
Local Machine Key	None	A string identifier for the connection between the controller and the agent. ( The same name has to be entered for the Load Generator name field in the controller settings)
Connection Timeout (Seconds)	20 sec	Enter the time the agent waits before connecting to the Mi Listener
Mi Listener username	None	Enter the username for the Mi Listener connection
Mi Listener Password	None	The password for the connection
Server Domain	None	You can leave this unchanged unless you use NT LAN Manager
Connection Type TCP, HTTP Proxy Name Proxy Port Proxy username Proxy password	TCP	Choose the connection you are using If you use HTTP connection, enter proxy details

Save these settings and restart the LR agent.

Step 3: Configuring the Controller

Open the controller settings by going to Start -> All programs -> Load Runner -> Applications.
Choose Create a new scenario.
Open the Load generators window and click on Generators
Enter the name used for the Local machine key in the LR agent settings window.
To get the load generator information, click on Details.
Go to Firewall tab
Enter the Mi Listener name ( The same name given for the MI listener in the MI Listener settings)
For the firewall settings, there are two tabs
1. Enable running Vusers over Firewall
2. Enable Monitoring over Firewall
Choose the appropriate option and save the settings and connect the load generator.

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Common Issues with HP Load Runner

Tushar Sharma — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:51:02 +0000

Common Issues with HP Load Runner | As Published On Automation Dojos

Virtual User Generator (VuGen)
Controller and Load Generator
Result Analysis
Common issues with Load Runner

HP Load Runner is a popular automated load and performance testing tool that emulates actual load to check the performance and behavior of a product. Load Runner comprises three important components namely Virtual User Generator (VuGen), Controller and Load Generator and Analysis.

In fact, before we start discussing the ‘common issues’, let’s take a moment to go through the main LoadRunner components in brief as this would make the terms used in this article more meaningful and clear.

Virtual User Generator (VuGen)

For load and performance testing, you need to create scripts for simulating transactions. That is what VUGen does, in fact, it is one of the most important and most frequently used components of LoadRunner. As a scripting tool, VuGen enables you to create specific user scripts that record various transactions. In addition to creating user scripts, VuGen allows the following tasks:

VUGen allows you to record or develop scripts.
Parametrize the scripts with data.
You can add a checkpoint for test conditions.
Allows for script debugging
You can measure the transaction timings

Controller and Load Generator

The controller is responsible for executing scripts. When VuGen creates user scripts to simulate transactions, the next requirement is the creation of user case scenarios that simulate the behaviour of a user. These user cases or Vusers are executed and managed by the controller from a single workstation. In addition to passing scripts to the Load Generator which executes Vuser scripts, the controller collects the resulting information for analysis.

Result Analysis

HP Load Runner offers analytic tools that enable you to create detailed reports from Vuser logs generated after the execution of tests. You can either analyze reports from a single test or compare multiple tests.

Common issues with Load Runner

While HP Load Runner is a great tool to increase the quality of a product, technical issues can be frustrating as well. Here are some of the common issues experienced while working with Load Runner.

CASE 1 - When you save or compile VuGen scripts, they get corrupted

This is a common issue seen with most versions of LR. This issue is caused when you clean up the contents of the TEMP folder. Most of us use clean up tools that regularly clear up temporary files from the computer. Sometimes, you do it manually as well. With Windows OS, it is a common phenomenon that the original file is saved in the hard drive and a temporary copy is created in the temporary folder when you open any file.

So, when you clear contents of the temp folder while some VuGen scripts are open, the data is lost. When you save or compile the script, it fills the data with garbage.

To prevent this issue, do not clean up the system when you are working with VuGen scripts.

CASE 2 – LR closes or freezes when replaying scripts

This is another known issue particularly with version VuGen 11.04. When you replay scripts, it either freezes or closes automatically. This is because a thumbnail value is enabled in the registry and you need to disable it. To do so :

Go to Start -> Run -> RegEdit
Navigate to HKEY_Local_Machine -> Software
For 32-bit, go to Mercury Interactive -> Load Runner -> VuGen – > Thumbnails
For 64-bit, go to Wow6432node – > Mercury Interactive -> Load Runner -> VuGen – > Thumbnails
On the right pane, go to GenerateThumbs Key. If the value is set to 1, change it to 0.
Close the registry editor and restart the application

CASE 3 – LR Web Recording issues

There are several reasons for the web recording tool to stop recording. Here are few tips to try.

Check if the communication between the server and the client application is good.
Web recording works fine when the application communicates using HTTP or HTTPS protocols.
When Non-HTML elements like JavaScript are used, you have to choose the right option for Non-HTML-generated elements under the HTML recording options.
Firewall or Anti-virus programs might interfere with the web recording component as well. Check this aspect.
If parasites like Huntbar are installed on the same machine, it will prevent LR from recording. Check this aspect as well.

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A Prologue For HP Load Runner

Tushar Sharma — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 01:13:34 +0000

A Prologue For HP Load Runner | As Published On Automation Dojos

Performance testing is one of the important processes of the software QA segment. While the application is efficiently designed and tested for functionality, it might lack the power to accommodate thousands of concurrent users.

Performance testing gauges the actual potentiality of an application. It replicates a scenario wherein thousands of concurrent users are running the application and thereby calculates the performance of the applications in terms of load balancing, stress management, endurance and scalability.

As the testing environment requires thousands of concurrent users, automated software is used to carry performance testing. HP is the leader in this segment with its HP load Runner software tool.

What is HP Load Runner?

HP Load Runner is a software testing tool from HP that is designed to perform non-functionality testing like performance testing. It unleashes the actual potentiality of an application before it goes live. With rapid advancement in technology and increasing cloud computing networks, it is important to check every application for load balancing and scalability features before releasing it for customers.

The need for HP Load Runner

In today’s fast-paced world, people need instant results. With several options available to customers, businesses only have few seconds to convince a customer to stay on the application. In such conditions, application load time is very essential. You have to make sure that the application loads in quick time. At the same time response time should be minimal too. When a user inputs data into the application, he expects a quick output. In addition, scalability is another factor wherein multiple users login at the same time and expect the application to deliver the same performance. All these issues have to be sorted out before launching a software application. HP load Runner offers intuitive testing tools that automate non-functional testing processes to analyze the performance of an application.

HP Load Runner in the cloud

With increased use of cloud-based applications, there is a greater need for cloud testing in recent times. HP Load Runner was lacking this feature earlier.

However, users can now make use of cloud-based HP Load Runner services to optimize resources and enjoy maximum ROI. HP Load Runner works with Amazon EC2 to offer highly scalable testing solutions to businesses of all sizes. With on-demand services, you can quickly deploy the testing environment and enjoy world-class technologies at cost-effective prices.

One of the important benefits of cloud-based testing is the provision of real-time network testing environments. While testing the application from your on-premise lab, several aspects like the latency, data loss, packet loss and bandwidth issues can be evaluated. On-premise lab testing does not effectively simulate these aspects. As load testing tools are required to test the performance of an application with thousands of concurrent users, cloud-based load testing achieves this task to perfection.

Tips to make the most out of HP Load Runner

While the testing software is packed with innovative features, it requires some expertise and experience to squeeze maximum performance from the application.

First of all, it is important to coordinate with all members of the testing team beforehand.
A dry-run/sanity is always a good idea.
Keep frequent communication and don’t hesitate to coordinate with every person in the team.
While performing tests, it is recommended to reboot servers.
If you are using web browsers, clearing the cache is important.
While using test cases, choose stable ones.
Organizing your scenario, scripts and transactions is another critical aspect. You can do so by choosing an appropriate naming convention for each transaction.
In addition, you can capture the database and / or Application server images and closely monitor server health using Perfmon etc.

By following these simple tips, you can ensure that the testing procedure is optimized to the core.

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