HP LoadRunner Readme File
Software Version: 12.00
Publication Date: March 2014, Version 2
A later edition of the Readme file may be available. For updates, check one of these locations: HP Live Network (HPLN) or the HP Software Manuals Web site.
This file provides information about LoadRunner 12.00, such as new features, system requirements, and known issues.
What's New in LoadRunner 12.00
The following section lists the primary enhancements and new features for LoadRunner 12.00.
For more information on the new features, refer to the What’s New section within the LoadRunner product, which includes links to the relevant sections. The What’s New section is accessible from the Help menu or from the Help’s Contents list.
Support for load generators on the cloud
- Ability to provision cloud load generators directly from the Controller
- Ability to run tests on load generators on Amazon EC2 Cloud
Enhanced communication interface between Controller and load generators
Ability to configure the ports between all LoadRunner components—Controller, load generator, MI Listener, and Monitor over Firewall
Ability to connect from Controller to load generator, MI Listener, and Monitor over Firewall via proxy
Use of Network Connection profiles that let you configure connection information, such as port and proxy, separately for each load generator
Improved support and enhanced usability for SSL security
Ability to configure load generator to accept communication only from trusted Controllers using SSL authentication
Network and security manager
New utility to configure network and security settings for LoadRunner agent, for both local and remote machines
Enhancements for testing mobile applications
Replay support for SMP (SAP Mobile Platform) recorded sessions
Enhanced proxy record
Improvements and added features in VuGen
Enhanced replay summary with transaction breakdown with new time- trend charts
Support for editing common file types in VuGen editor—not limited to Vuser scripts
Multiple VuGen usability improvements for better productivity
Ability to cancel a recording session without overwriting the script
Improved search capabilities
Performance improvements, including the ability to disable snapshots for better performance
Debugger improvements
Enhancements and added integrations for protocols
Web HTTP/HTML:
- HTML5 WebSocket support
- TruClient to Web HTTP/HTML protocol script converter
- SSL utility for performing various OpenSSL commands through a user-friendly interface
- SPDY support
- Internet Explorer 11 support
- TLS 1.1, TLS 1.2, and TLS NPN support
- Enhanced asynchronous support with ResponseHeader callback
- Recording troubleshooting: ability to identify a recording failure and suggest a possible fix
Linux support: Replay now supports additional protocols on Linux-based load generators: FTP, IMAP, LDAP, POP3, SMTP, and Windows Sockets
TruClient: Support for rendezvous points, IP spoofing, and Shunra network virtualization
Silverlight: Support for latest version and IP Spoofing
SAP-Web: Correlation Studio support in VuGen
LDAP: Support for latest version of LDAP SDK
Flex: Support for the latest Flex SDK
.NET: Support for version 4.5
Citrix: Support for the latest versions of client receiver and XenDesktop, and the ability to run multiple published applications in the same session
SAP: SAP Application Testing by HP, HANA Edition (LoadRunner and Quality Center/Application Lifecycle Management) has received a Premium Qualification for SAP Vendor Branded Resellers. This certification is effective from LoadRunner 11.50 and Application Lifecycle Management 11.00.
New supported technologies and platforms
Windows Server 2012 support
Record and replay support for Internet Explorer 11, Chrome version 30, and Firefox version 23
Support for latest versions of Eclipse Juno, JUnit, and Selenium
External IDE integration/add-ins for LoadRunner scripts and applications
Ability to invoke the Controller directly from Visual Studio and Eclipse
Add-in for Visual Studio 2012 for VuGen scripts and unit test developers
Support for latest version of Eclipse
Improvements in Virtual Table Server (VTS)
- Create multiple running instances of VTS
- Run VTS commands and batch files from the command line
- VTS support through a JavaScript API
- Populate data tables with sample data from the main menu
For details, see the Virtual Table Server (VTS) User Guide. This is available with the VTS installation under the DVD's Additional Components folder.
Integration with latest HP product versions
HP Service Virtualization
HP Diagnostics
HP SiteScope
HP Unified Functional Testing (UFT)
HP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)
Improved documentation
Workflow diagrams added to user guide for testing and script creation processes
Enhancements to Flex, Web HTTP/HTML, and TruClient protocol documentation, with added tasks and procedures
Improved organization of function reference including additional code samples and the new WebSocket functions
General enhancements
Simplified product installation with shorter installation time
Non-admin user support: LoadRunner components can now run under a standard user account and with UAC and DEP enabled—an administrator account is no longer required. This applies to all LoadRunner components and tools accessible from the LoadRunner > Tools node under the Start menu.
Note: If you open a service call to HP Support, you may be instructed to log in as an administrator for the purpose of troubleshooting.Shunra integration enhancements
Database API functions are now available for all C language protocols
Community license bundle
LoadRunner is now delivered with the Community bundle; this replaces the Instant-on license.
The new bundle is permanent, with 50 Vusers.
It includes all the protocols with the exception of GUI (UFT), COM/DCOM, and all the protocols in the template bundle.
Installation and Configuration Information
For a complete list of supported integrations, product versions, system requirements, and compatibility, see the Support Matrices site or the PAM (Product Availability Matrix) for LoadRunner 12.00. To locate the PAM, go to the Software Support site at www.hp.com/go/hpsoftwaresupport , click the Self-solve tab, and search for the Product Availability Matrix for LoadRunner 12.00.
Permission requirements
The Installation process, for all components, requires an operating system administrator account (root account for Linux systems) for all operating systems.
After installation, all of the LoadRunner applications and components run under a standard user account (an administrator account is not required), with UAC and DEP enabled. For limitations relating to user permissions for specific features and components, see Permissions .
Note: On Windows 8, a restart is required after installing the prerequisite Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Packages. Restart the machine and run setup.exe again from the DVD or from the downloaded package.Language Packs
To install a language pack, at the completion of the LoadRunner installation, run the language pack setup from the LoadRunner DVD lrunner/<language_name> folder.
System Requirements for full version of LoadRunner, VuGen, and Analysis
The following table describes the system requirements for installing the full version of LoadRunner, VuGen standalone, or Analysis standalone. Memory and CPU requirements vary per protocol and system under test.
Requirement Value
- Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 64-bit
- Windows Server 2012 64-bit [only supported for Controller and Analysis]
- Windows 7 SP1 32 (supported) or 64-bit (recommended)
- Windows 8 64-bit
System Requirements for load generators and MI Listener on Windows machines
The following table describes the system requirements for installing a load generator or MI Listener on a Windows machine. Memory and CPU requirements vary per protocol and system under test.
Requirement Value
- Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 64-bit
- Windows Server 2012 64-bit
- Windows 7 SP1 32 (supported) or 64-bit (recommended)
- Windows 8 64-bit
System Requirements for load generators on Linux Machines
The following table lists the system requirements for installing a load generator on a Linux machine. Memory and CPU requirements vary per protocol and system under test.
Requirement Value
Supported Linux distributions
The following table lists the Linux distributions on which you can install a load generator on a Linux machine. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the distributions are supported.
Distribution Version Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 32-bit 5.8, 6.0
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 64-bit 5.8, 6.4
Oracle Enterprise Linux
- Oracle Enterprise Linux 32-bit 5.0 RH, 6.0 RH, 6.0 UEK
- Oracle Enterprise Linux 64-bit 5.0 RH, 6.4 RH, 6.0 UEK
Ubuntu Server
- Ubuntu Server Linux 32-bit 10.04 LTS, 12.04 LTS
- Ubuntu Server Linux 64-bit 10.04 LTS, 12.04 LTS
Amazon Linux
- AMI 32-bit and 64-bit (version 2012.03 or later)
Note: Load generators support all X Servers.
Prerequisite packages for 64-bit installations
The following table lists the packages that must be installed on Linux machines before installing the 64-bit version of a load generator.
Distribution Prerequisites
How to check if it is installed How to install Red Hat family including Oracle Linux and Amazon Linux
- glibc.i686
rpm -qa --qf '%{NAME}.%{ARCH}\n' | grep -E 'glibc\.(i686|i386)' yum install <package_name>
- libstdc++.i686(Oralce Linux 6)
- libstdc++.i686 (Redhat Linux 5, Oralce Linux 5)
- libstdc++47.i686 (Amazon Linux)
rpm -qa --qf '%{NAME}.%{ARCH}\n' | grep -E 'libstdc\+\+[0-9]*\.(i686|i386)'
- ncurses-libs.i686 (needed by SecurityConsole)
- ncurses.i386 (Redhat Linux 5)
rpm -qa --qf '%{NAME}.%{ARCH}\n' | grep -E 'ncurses(-libs)?\.(i686|i386)' Ubuntu Server
- libc6-i386
lib32stdc++6
- dpkg -l libc6-i386
- dpkg -l lib32stdc++6
apt-get install <package_name>
- lib32ncurses5 (needed by SecurityConsole)
Note: The prerequisites listed in the table above indicate the naming patterns for the required packages. Actual names may vary depending on the exact system architecture.
LoadRunner Component Coexistence Matrix
The following table describes which LoadRunner products can coexist on the same machine:
LoadRunner Full VuGen Standalone Analysis Standalone Load Generator Monitor Over Firewall MI Listener Performance Validation SDK LR Full -- No No No No No No VuGen Standalone No -- Yes No No No No Analysis Standalone No Yes -- No No No No Load Generator No No No -- No No No Monitor over Firewall No No No No -- No No MI Listener No No No No No -- No Yes
No No No No No --
Additional Installations and Upgrades
- All of the standalone installations (such as Load Generator and so forth) can be found on the DVD's Standalone Applications folder.
- All of the additional components (such as the Citrix Agent and so forth) can be found on the DVD's Additional Components folder.
You can install LoadRunner 12.00 over an existing, earlier version of LoadRunner. If, however, you have a pre-11.00 version of LoadRunner, you must uninstall it before installing LoadRunner 12.00.
Virtual Table Server (VTS)
If you have an older version of VTS, uninstall it and reinstall the latest version from the Additional Components folder on the DVD.
Notes and Limitations
This section includes pre-installation notes, issues, and workarounds for LoadRunner version 12.00.
For additional limitations and workarounds, see the "Troubleshooting and Limitations" sections in the LoadRunner User Guide.
Installation
Windows
- When you have multiple LoadRunner components installed on a machine for example, both VuGen and Analysis (standalone versions) and you uninstall one of the components—after the uninstall, you must run Repair on the remaining components.
- If you are running McAfee or Aladdin's eSafe anti-virus applications, close them before installing LoadRunner.
- If you are running McAfee's anti-virus applications, note that it blocks port 443 used as the default by the LoadRunner agent. You need to manually enable this port. To disable the port, open the McAfee configuration dialog box. In the Firewall Policy tab, add a new rule to allow Port 443 - Action: Permit IP: TCP, Incoming traffic for the HP LoadRunner Agent Process.
- The installation wizards for the VuGen and Analysis standalone products are not localized—they are only available in English.
- If you install a language pack after you have already generated Analysis results, you will not be able to open the results file (.lra). You can only open it on a machine with the same regional settings as the machine upon which it was generated. You can, however, open the raw results, the .lrr file.
Linux
- When uninstalling a load generator on a Linux machine, the uninstall process may fail and the following message may appear: "Error: failed & because &: cannot restore segment port after reloc: permission denied"
Workaround: Use the setenforce 0 command to disable SE Linux before uninstalling the load generator. When the uninstall is complete, use the setenforce 1 command to enable SE Linux.
Note: This limitation applies only to Oracle 5.0 and Red Hat 5 [32-bit].Coexistence with Unified Functional Testing (UFT)
- If you install LoadRunner and UFT on the same machine. and then uninstall one of them, the remaining software program may not function correctly.
Workaround: Reinstall the software program you want to use on the machine.- A machine with LoadRunner and UFT, in which UFT was installed after LoadRunner, may not allow the recording of certain protocols.
Workaround: Uninstall UFT and run a Repair on the LoadRunner installation.- If you install or UFT when the magentproc.exe service is running on an external load generator machine, the Controller might not be able to run UFT scripts on the load generator.
Workaround: After installing UFT, restart the magentproc.exe service on the external load generator, or alternatively reboot the machine.Permissions
- Issue: When running the LoadRunner License utility with UAC enabled, LoadRunner prompts you for administrator credentials.
Resolution: Run the utility as administrator.
- Issue: When using the Visual Studio 2010 and 2012 add-ins to create C# and VB .NET scripts: Visual Studio creates .NET assemblies that need to be registered in the system before their run. Registration of the .NET assembly requires administrative permissions.
Resolution: Enable UAC and register the .NET assembly before running the test using one of these methods:
- Run Visual Studio "As Administrator" and provide administrative credentials when prompted. In Project Settings, ensure that the Register for COM interop option is set (Project > Properties > Build > Register for COM interop). Visual Studio will automatically register the test DLL as a .NET assembly every time it builds the project.
- Run Visual Studio without administrative permissions, and manually register the test DLL after it is built. To do so, run Windows Console with administrative permissions and run the following command: %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\RegAsm.exe <TargetDLLwithPath> /codebase (ignore the warning issued when you run this command).
For example, you might replace <TargetDLLwithPath> with "c:\users\qatest\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\LoadRunnerUser1\LoadRunnerUser1\LoadRunnerUser1.dll." You do not need to register the DLL after every build. It is enough to register it once after making changes in the COM interfaces defined in the DLL.- Issue: The IP Wizard does not function for a Limited user.
Resolution: Run the IP Wizard with administrator permissions. The IP Wizard uses raw sockets to communicate with remote machines. Therefore, administrative privileges are required for opening and using raw sockets in socket-based communication. For more information, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms740548%28v=vs.85%29.aspx. Alternatively, you can set the IP Wizard settings locally on the target machine.- Issue: When recording a Web-based protocol script, the recording may fail in certain installations, if Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is enabled.
Resolution: Disable DEP on your machine. For details, see How to Record a Vuser Script in the User Guide.- Issue: Unable to set agent Run-time settings (Start Menu >... > HP LoadRunner > Tools > Agent Run-time Setting Configuration) as a Limited user.
Resolution: Run the tool with administrator permissions. The tool requires these permissions since it installs or removes the LoadRunner Agent Windows service.- Issue: The network settings for load generators on Linux machines cannot be configured by a Limited user.
Resolution: When working on a Linux operating system, run lr_agent_settings with administrator permissions.VuGen
- Recording within Chrome and Firefox may fail if other browser windows are open.
Workaround: Close all Chrome and Firefox instances before recording those browsers.- Replay fails for a script recorded on the HP WebTours application.
Workaround: Set the run-time settings to work with no proxy.- Insert Text Check functionality is not supported for 64-bit browsers.
Workaround: Add a Text Check from the Snapshot pane after the script is generated.- Record and Replay of RTE scripts on the Controller is not supported on Windows 8 or Windows 2012 server machines.
- If you open an HP site in the embedded browser and the site is not included in the trusted sites list, you will be prompted to add the site to the trusted site list. After adding the site, you may receive a Web site scripting error. Close the error and continue working as you normally would.
- For the following protocols, replay is supported, but recording is no longer supported: Siebel - DB2 CLI, i-mode, EJB, Sybase Dblib, Sybase Ctlib, Informix, PeopleSoft-Tuxedo, PeopleSoft Enterprise, Tuxedo, VBScript Vuser, JavaScript Vuser, SQL Server, and Web Click and Script. These protocols will be removed from future releases of LoadRunner.
- Run-time errors generated during the replay of VBScript scripts, may not be handled properly. It is recommended that you port existing VBScript scripts to C.
Possible Workaround: Enable the Continue on Error option in the Run-time setting.- The VB protocol has been deprecated beginning LoadRunner 11.50.
- For the SMP Protocol: Scripts running classes from DotNetReplayUtils.dll may fail during replay.
Workaround: Edit Script.csproj and change the DLL version from 9.0.0.0 to 12.0.0.0 in the following string:
<Reference Include="DotNetReplayUtils, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null" />- For TruClient Ajax - IE scripts: During recording, Internet Explorer replaces the actual file path with the following path: C:\\fakepath\\<filename> in the step’s argument field. If you replay the script with this path, it will fail.
Workaround: Manually modify the step’s argument after the recording. Replace the string c:\\fakepath\\image.jpg with the actual path to the image, for example, D:\\My Images\\photos\\image.jpg.- For all TruClient scripts: If you added custom configurations to the pref.js or user.js files for scripts recorded with LoadRunner 11.52, you will need to re-add them to the LoadRunner 12.00 script files.
Tip: it is recommended that you backup existing files before you begin editing scripts with custom configurations in LoadRunner 12.00.- LoadRunner cannot record a Vuser script for certain protocols if the LoadRunner installation is on a Chinese operating system, and the installation path contains Chinese characters.
Controller and General
- For LoadRunner installed on a Windows Server operating system, Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration must be disabled in order to view help content. It is enabled by default (Control Panel > Administrative tools > Server manager > Configure IE ESC). For details on disabling enhanced security, see VuGen - Troubleshooting and Limitations in the User Guide.
- Network Virtualization (Shunra) is not supported for C# .NET, C++ .NET, or VB .NET scripts created using the Visual Studio add-in for LoadRunner.
- In the Run Results Viewer, certain menu commands are not available, such as Print and Copy.
- The following monitors have been deprecated for this version of LoadRunner: CheckPoint FireWall-1, WebLogic SNMP, DB2, SAPGUI, PeopleSoft (Tuxedo), MS COM+, and Tuxedo.
- When you stop a named VTS instance, the instance may continue to run until you restart the VTS Windows service, which will block you from creating an instance with the same name or port.
Workaround: Restart the Windows service. For example, use the “net stop vtsservice” to stop the service, and “net start vtsservice” to restart it.Integrations
This section provides integration information about:
Product Compatibility
LoadRunner 12.00 is compatible with the following HP product versions:
- HP Application Lifecycle Management versions 11.00 Patch 16, 11.52 Patch 1, and 12.00
- HP Diagnostics versions 9.21 and 9.23
- HP SiteScope versions 11.22 and 11.23. To obtain a license for the SiteScope monitor, contact your HP representative.
- HP Service Virtualization version 3.10
- HP Unified Functional Testing version 12.00
For the latest information about product compatibility and system requirements, see Integration Support Matrices for HP ALM and Tools 12.00.
Data Format Extensions (DFE) Support
- The following DFEs are supported on both Windows and Linux: Base64, JSON to XML, PrefixPostfix, UrlEncoding, and XML.
- The following DFEs are supported only on Windows machines: XSS, GWT, and Remedy.
HP Performance Center
- You cannot connect from VuGen to an SSL enabled Performance Center host when the Performance Center server is using SSO for authentication.
HP Service Virtualization
- When running a scenario with an HP Service Virtualization project, if you change the Service Virtualization settings on the Design tab, they are not applied to the HP Service Virtualization servers.
- A Service Virtualization project cannot be correctly imported to a scenario, if the HP Service Virtualization server uses credentials for both SSL and monitors.
Workaround: Configure the HP Service Virtualization server to use credentials only for SSL.Protocol SDK
- When building MSIs, non-English characters in file and path names are not supported.
- To run the Protocol SDK, you must have Administrator permissions, and the Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode setting must be disabled.
- The Protocol SDK supports 32-bit and 64-bit MSIs for LoadRunner, VuGen, and PC-Host; For PC-Server, only 32-bit MSIs are supported.
- For LoadRunner, VuGen, and PC-Host, PatchAddin support is for TARGETDIR files only.
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