The first big thing you’ll notice when you launch the 11.5 version is the revamped VuGen utility. This was HP’s attempt to develop a friendlier IDE and get it up to speed with other popular development tool IDE’s. Below is a short list of some of the upgraded features:

Usability

New Correlation Studio

Data Format Extension for Google Web Toolkit

Recording 64-bit Applications

Ipv6 Support

Collaboration

Protocols

Enhanced Analysis

Custom Script Extensibility

Integration With HP Service Virtualization

VuGen for Business Process Monitoring

Environments Added

Check the official datasheet on What’s new in HP LoadRunner 11.5 software?

Other than the new features above,  the newly announced HP product support news may also influence your decision on whether to upgrade to 11.5.

Some key dates are listed below regarding HP LoadRunner support and licensing:

So with all this being said, I do believe it makes sense to undertake the upgrade process to version 11.5. If nothing else, you get the latest and greatest VuGen code editor which can make scripting complex scripts faster with code completion, enhanced coloring and formatting. As always you need to consider what version your current test assets are in, and pick a time when you have some empty test cycles to get the new environment stood up and shake out things appropriately. Plus, keep in mind that LoadRunner scripts are not backwards compatible.

This is a guest post by Ivan Lisitsyn. He is an experienced load testing specialist. He works in SoftLogicacompany for the last 10 years and is its own Steve Jobs for WAPT.

Please let me introduce WAPT, a load testing tool for web sites and any applications that have web interface. In this article we will review the product features and will try to understand what makes WAPT special. But let’s start with a more general question.

When you need a load testing tool?

We all know that any software product requires a careful testing before it is ready for the delivery to the end users. If the product is a complex system consisting of several components, you may need to have different tests for each of them. In addition you may need to design tests to check the integrity of the system. In all such test you check the functionality. You provide some input data for your application and check that the output is correct. This is called Functional Testing. However if the tested product can be accessed by multiple users simultaneously, which is true for any web application, functional testing is not sufficient. Moreover, your web application may have successfully passed all functional tests, which means that it works perfectly for one user. Practice shows that in such case there is only a 50% chance that it will continue working correctly when accessed by multiple users. The more users you add, the greater probability that it will fail. That is why Load Testing is so important. Here are three important facts about it.

• Load testing is always performed as the last testing step, which means that the application should pass all functional tests before that stage.
• Load testing deals with quality requirements, which should be defined by your business objectives. After the testing you can compare actual performance parameters with the desired ones. If you do not have the exact requirements, you cannot tell if the application passed the test or not.
• Load testing cannot be performed manually without testing tools that emulate multiple simultaneous users accessing the target application. That is why the rest of the article makes sense.

Efficiency approach

A good functional testing tool should be able to create a very accurate emulation of real user behavior. It should also have a set of features to check that the tested application works correctly. In case of a load testing tool you have to require something more on top of that: efficiency. When you need to create thousands virtual users to test your web site, it will be a bad surprise for you if your testing solution can create only a hundred users with help of one server. This will increase your hardware expenses dramatically. Fortunately, there is another difference which makes the problem a bit easier: load testing deals only with the server part of the tested application. It does not check that the client part works correctly, so it does not need to emulate a real user working with the web interface. It can emulate the work of that web interface and communicate directly with the server. In any case the tests are initially created by recording user actions. However functional tests consist of such actions like mouse moves, keyboard strokes, clicking buttons on specific windows, etc. Web load testing tools usually record tests in form of sequences of HTTP requests sent to the server as a result of user activity in a browser. These requests contain all the session-specific data that client sends to the server. The responses carry data in the opposite direction. This approach is much more efficient, because it does not require launching a copy of the client application to emulate each user. As a result, a wisely designed load testing tool, such as WAPT, can create thousands virtual users with help of just one computer. This makes it different from functional testing products extended with additional load testing modules. This is the reason why it is normal to have a separate product for load testing even if your current testing solution claims to include that functionality.

Do you have to be a programmer to create load tests?

In fact, the above mentioned approach is not completely new. Efficient load testing tools appeared many years ago, soon after first web sites. The general problem with those tools was that to create a test you had to write a program in some scripting language. The execution of that program by the testing tool actually produced the desired load on the target web site. If you wanted to change any test parameter, such as the number of virtual users, you had to find the corresponding value in the script and modify it. For some reason this approach in load testing appeared to be very persistent. Even in our days most test engineers refer to “test scripts”, if they want to name something containing test specification. Moreover, even though most load testing tools can record tests with just few clicks and change test parameters through a convenient GUI, they still keep the real test specification in a script. WAPT is completely different in this respect. User behavior on the tested web site is specified in a so-called virtual user profile. In most cases this is just a sequence of HTTP requests which will be sent one by one to create a copy of the initially recorded user session. If you need to make different users do different things, you can create several profiles, or you can add operators that will switch the execution depending on session-specific conditions. In any case the profile will be represented by a tree-like structure where you can edit the properties of each node. This is a bit more complex than a sequence of requests, but still much easier to work with than a script.

Accurate real user emulation

How is it possible to emulate the behavior of real users without running the client application? Obviously each user session can include some specific data, which cannot be the same in other sessions. This is not just a session ID, which is usually handled by cookies. You may need to make different virtual users use different names and passwords. Moreover, during the user session the client application may receive some data from the server and use that data in subsequent actions. All such problems can be resolved by proper parameterization of HTTP requests. In WAPT you can see and edit the list of parameters for each request when you observe its properties. If you need to make some parameters changing for different sessions, you can easily do this. There is a wide set of functions for this purpose. For example, you can read user names and passwords from a file one by one for each new session. If you need to extract a value from server response, you can define a variable and assign the extracted value to it. In subsequent requests you can use that variable to specify the value of a parameter. What is even better, WAPT automates that process for the most common cases. For example, if it finds a hidden field inside an HTML form, it automatically creates a variable for it. The above approach is good to handle about 95% of all tests. However what if you really need to implement a complex calculation, which is normally performed by the client part of your web application? You can do this with help of JavaScript code that you can insert between any two requests. So, WAPT actually has all the same capabilities as the script-based tools. However it is much easier to use in less complex cases. In addition to the accurate emulation of user session, WAPT can also easily check if the server response is correct or not. Usually this can be done by searching a certain keyword inside the server response. The word “error” is a popular one for this. However, if you want a more complex processing, you are welcome to use JavaScript.

Let’s specify the load for the web site

Once you created profiles for all types of virtual users that you want to add to the test, you need to specify the load parameters. WAPT provide a good flexibility in this respect. First of all, you can choose one of three types of load for each profile: constant, ramp-up or periodic. In each case you can adjust corresponding load parameters. For example, for growing load you can specify how many virtual users should be added at each step and how long that step will take. If you use several systems to generate the load, you can assign certain profiles to specific load agents. For example, if you run a distributed test and one of your load agents is located in Australia, you can create a special profile for Australian users and assign it to the load agent located there.

Test results analysis

As soon as all load parameters are specified, you can click the “Run test” button and see what happens to your web site. WAPT starts delivering performance data almost immediately after you launch the test. You can see on charts how the error rate, response time and throughput parameters change as the load grows. In addition to charts you obtain a comprehensive report with about 20 different tables where you can see averaged data for each test phase. It is very detailed, so even if you need to measure response time for a particular request, you can find that information in the report. In some cases you may discover that your web site experiences problems only in certain specific sessions, or you may need to have the exact output to research the reason of produced errors. For this purpose you can enable logging and see all the requests and responses for each user session after the test completion. Since logs can occupy significant space, there are additional options that let you enable them only for the first users and limit the response length stored in logs. Finally, you can get data directly from one or several servers through SNMP interface for general system parameters, such as CPU usage. Database performance parameters can be obtained through an ODBC connection. A set of most useful counters for Oracle, MS SQL and MySQL is already included in the product, but you can also create your own ones. This data is included in the report along with the other performance information.

Is it applicable for any web site?

WAPT can be used to load test almost any web application. The only important note is that the application should be HTTP-based, which means that it should use HTTP protocol for client-server communication. Otherwise WAPT will not be able to record such communication and reproduce user sessions during the test. In fact, the above condition is not very limiting. Probably only about 1% of client-server applications, which also call themselves “web clients” do not meet that criterion. This is because “web” essentially means something accessible over HTTP. Only some sophisticated Java-based client applications which are not browser-based at all can use their own protocol instead of HTTP. Inside the HTTP field there are many specific things supported by WAPT: secured HTTPS connections, client certificates, proxy servers, a number of different authentication schemes, and much more. There is a bunch of small features which can become very important for a certain web site or a certain test case: browser cache emulation, streaming requests (continuing on the background while the virtual user executes the rest of the session), rendezvous point to synchronize the behavior of different users, IP spoofing to emulate users with different IPs, etc. In addition to the above the functionality of the product can be extended with several modules, each of which facilitates work with web sites utilizing a specific technology. For example, to facilitate the work with ASP.net sites you can install such a module and it will automate parameterization of view states. Currently the following modules are available: ASP.net, JSON, Flash/Flex, and Silverlight.

WAPT product line

WAPT is quite affordable in terms of prices. It costs less than most of its competitors, especially if you need a scalable solution for a high volume test. Unlike many other vendors, we do not charge for licenses depending on the number of virtual users that you need to create in your test. Instead of this we provide different versions and extensions that are required only in certain cases. The basic version of WAPT is not scalable and can use only one system both for the test design/management and for the virtual user emulation. The professional license allows you to install the workplace component (GUI) of the product on a single system and use up to 2 systems for load generation. If you want to extend this limit, you can purchase additional Load Agents. These agents are used to create greater test load for your web site. Each Load Agent can generate about 2000 virtual users in an average test. Some other useful features like direct server and database monitoring and JavaScript support are also available only in the Pro version. Finally, if you need to generate a very big test volume (over 10,000 virtual users), you can replace regular load agents with a powerful thing called x64 Load Engine.

1. Go to LoadRunner Download location.
2. Hit TRIALS AND DEMOS dropdown and click HP LOADRUNNER 11.0 EVALUATION.
3. You will be asked to sign-in to HP Passport Single Sign On service. In case you’ve not registered earlier, complete the ‘New User registration’ form and you will be redirected to evaluation software terms of use.
4. Click “I Agree” as shown below
5. Download the two files 1) Software_HP_LoadRunner_11.00_T7177_15013.zip and 2) Software_HP_LoadRunner_11.00_T7177_15013.z01 as shown below. [You can also download this file to read more instructions from HP]
6. The two files shown above are around 3.2 GB (1.5 GB + 1.8GB) in size. It may take around 2-3 hrs to download (depending upon your internet speed)
7. Make sure both files are present in the same folder and both files have exactly the same name except for the extension (.zip and .z01).
8. Download and install Winzip or WinRar. (7zip won’t work here)
9. Double click on the .zip file and you will see .iso file.
10. Extract this iso file using your favorite unzipping software.( I prefer a nice and free utility software called 7zip which can be downloaded here.  You can download and install this utility.)
11. Once extracted, go inside the folder T7177-15013 and open Install.pdf  file.
12. Install.pdf contains step-by-step instructions on installing LoadRunner on Windows and Unix platform. Just remember that wherever the instructions refer to installation disk you should go to the folder T7177-15013
13. That’s It. HP LoadRunner is now installed. Enjoy!

What is the requirement for LoadRunner v11 exam?

With LoadRunner v11, you would need to pass two core exams

1. Exam HP0-M48: HP LoadRunner 11.x Software AND
2. Exam HP0-M49: HP Virtual User Generator 11.x Software

What to expect in HP0-M48: HP LoadRunner 11.x Software exam?

• Number of items: 67
• Item types: multiple choice and drag-and-drop
• Exam time: 105 minutes
• Passing score: 72%

Syllabus

[Source: HP0-M48 exam preparation guide]

What to expect in HP0-M49: HP Virtual User Generator 11.x Software exam?

• Number of items: 63
• Item types: multiple choice and drag-and-drop
• Exam time: 105 minutes
• Passing score: 74%

Syllabus

[Source: HP0-M49 exam preparation guide]

How to enroll for LoadRunner 11 certification?

With effect from Feb 1st, 2012 HP certification exams are conducted by Pearson VUE. You need to apply for HP learner ID here. Once you have the Learner ID, you can then proceed to create your user profile at Pearson VUE.
Exams can be purchased using credit cards/PayPal or Wire transfer. The country specific price list can be found here.

How to prepare for LoadRunner Certification?

To prepare for QTP 11 certification, you can take help of our high quality LoadRunner Certification mock question and answers. These papers are developed by experts of LoadRunner in collaboration with LearnLoadRunner.com

These mock papers consists of

1. LoadRunner Mock Cert – 184 Q & A for HP0-M48 and
2. VuGen Mock Cert – 137 Q & A for HP0-M49

We have invested a lot of time and energy to come up with these questions and have tried to incorporate almost all major concepts of LoadRunner and syllabus of LoadRunner v 11 certification inside these papers.  Check more details here.

HP has recently announced the cloud version of LoadRunner in colloboration with Amazon EC2.

I see this is going to be a game changer in the performance testing industry. The majority of complaints we have heard about LoadRunner have not been about the tool per se but about the high pricing structure that virtually keeps this tool out of reach of small organizations.

LoadRunner in the cloud (may I nickname it LIC?) is not just poised to bridge that gap with its on-demand and “pay-as-you-go” policy – to add to that, its in-the-cloud offering going to reduce the burden of permissions required in a company set-up to negotiate a firewall.

With LIC service, Loadrunner and load generators will be installed on Amazon’s server as LoadRunner Amazon Machine Images (AMI) and will be available on an hourly rate.

This offering is currently in the beta phase and is available for US customer only. While in beta phase, HP is not going to charge you for the AMIs, you will only incur the charges for Amazon’s bandwidth usage (which in my experience are quite minimal)

Check out FAQs on LIC here. Also watch this excellent video by HP describing LIC in brief.

Let us know your views on LIC through the comments section below.

• web_url is not a context sensitive function while web_link is a context sensitive function. Context sensitive functions describe your actions in terms of GUI objects (such as windows, lists, and buttons). Check HTML vs URL recording mode.
• If web_url statement occurs before a context sensitive statement like web_link, it should hit the server, otherwise your script will get error’ed out.
• While recording, if you switch between the actions, the first statement recorded in a given action will never be a context sensitive statement.
• The first argument of a web_link, web_url, web_image or in general web_* does not affect the script replay. For example: if your web_link statements were recorded as
  [c]
  web_link("Hi There",
  "Text=Hello, ABC",
  LAST);
  [/c]

  Now, when you parameterize/correlate the first argument to
  [c]
  web_link("{Welcome to LearnLoadRunner}",
  "Text=Hello, ABC",
  LAST);
  [/c]

  On executing the above script you won’t find the actual text of the parameter {Welcome to Learn LoadRunner} instead you will find {Welcome to Learn LoadRunner} itself in the execution log. However to show the correlated/parameterized data you can use lr_eval_string to evaluate the parameter.

1. Put the title of the pop-up window in nca_obj_status function.
2. Find out where the pop-up is occurring, put the handling statement below it.
3. The handling statement could be nca_popup_message_press or nca_message_box_press. To find out which function is suitable for your script, record a script using data that generates that popup window, click on the button and check which function gets recorded.

Example:

This piece of code will trigger a pop-up:

nca_set_window( "PopUpObjects");

nca_lov_retrieve_items("PopUpObjects",1,20);

nca_lov_select_item("PopUpObjects","POP UP NOTIFICATIONS");

If title of the window is “Warning”, put it inside the nca_obj_status function. The code would be something like-

int status;

status=nca_obj_status("Warning");

if (status = = 0)

nca_popup_message_press("Warning","OK");

// nca_message_box_press("Forms",1); Any one of them

• LoadRunner noobs always struggle finding out the protocol behind a given application. It seems HP has noted the fact and have come out with a cool new feature called Protocol  Advisor. It sits inside VUGen. Protocol Advisor helps you to determine an appropriate protocol for recording a Vuser script. The Protocol Advisor scans your application for elements of different protocols and displays a list of the detected protocols. These protocols can provide a starting point for finding the optimal protocol for your application.

• Now you have the facility to export the Test Result from VUGen scripts to HTML and open Quality Center defects directly from the report.

• HP Service Test is now fully integrated with LoadRunner. You simply need to buy a license for service test to use its capabilities. [for the uninitiated, HP Service Test automates the testing process for services (SOA). Read more about it in this document.

• LoadRunner 9.5 supports Windows Vista SP1. (LoadRunner 9.1 only supported generators while LR9.5 provides support for both generator as well as controller). To use LR9.5 on Vista, make sure that User Account Control (UAC) is enabled for users with User privileges.

• LoadRunner 9.5 provides support upto .NET Framework 3.5 version and supports .NET and Web Services protocols.

• LoadRunner is now integrated with a 3rd party software Shunra, to provide you access to WAN emulation. Read the complete list of features here.

• Now you can define a Post Collate Command inside the Controller that it will run directly after it collates the results of a scenario run.

• LR controller has a new utility called Host Security Manager utility that will allow you to create secure communication channels between the LoadRunner Controller and load generators.

• There is a new Analysis API that will allow you to create an analysis session from test results, analyze raw results of an Analysis session, and extract key session measurements for external use.

• LR analysis now supports SQL Server 2005.

• LoadRunner 9.5 no longer supports Windows 2000.

• LR 9.5 is compatible with Quality Center(QC) 9.2, 10.0 and QTP 9.5 and 10.0 versions.

We have talked in length about RAM, memory leakage and how to calculate memory requirements. The question is, what shall we do if we run out of RAM/memory?

The word increasing RAM is actually a misnomer. We all know RAM comes in the form of a chip and that is fixed, when we say increasing memory/RAM we mean to increase the Virtual memory associated with RAM. We have already seen that when a system runs out of space it allots some of the RAM to virtual memory . So can you increase this virtual memory?

1. Go to Start > Control Panel > System > Click on ‘Settings’ under Performance section.
2. Now go to advanced tab. Click ‘Change’ under Virtual Memory section.
3. Select the drive where your paging files reside. Generally they are present in C: drive. Change the value and click on ‘Set’.

The steps given above are for Windows XP professional. I believe steps for other OS will more or less be the same.