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LoadRunner is a software testing tool from OpenText. It is used to test applications, measuring system behavior and performance under load.
LoadRunner can simulate millions of users concurrently using application software, recording and later analyzing the performance of key components of the application whilst under load.
LoadRunner simulates user activity by generating messages between application components or by simulating interactions with the user interface such as key presses or mouse movements. The messages and interactions to be generated are stored in scripts. LoadRunner can generate the scripts by recording them, such as logging HTTP requests between a client web browser and an application's web server.[1]
Hewlett Packard Enterprise acquired LoadRunner as part of its acquisition of Mercury Interactive in November 2006.[2][3] In Sept 2016, Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced it is selling its software business, including Mercury products, to Micro Focus.[4] As of 01-Sept-2017, the acquisition was complete.[5]
On Dec 12, 2019, Micro Focus announced newer names for LoadRunner package and started following CalVer.[6]
LoadRunner is now LoadRunner Professional 2020
Performance Center is now LoadRunner Enterprise 2020
StormRunner Load is now LoadRunner Cloud 2020
Architecture
The key components of LoadRunner are:
Load Generator generates the load against the application by following scripts
VuGen (Virtual User Generator) for generating and editing scripts
Controller controls, launches and sequences instances of Load Generator - specifying which script to use, for how long etc. During runs the Controller receives real-time monitoring data and displays status.
Agent process manages connection between Controller and Load Generator instances.
Analysis assembles logs from various load generators and formats reports for visualization of run result data and monitoring data.
Modules are available to enable LoadRunner to capture, replay and script different application and networking technologies. These include support for:[7]
remote client technologies such as Citrix ICA and RDP.
LoadRunner can be run standalone or multiple instances can pooled for use by several people under the control of LoadRunner Enterprise, formerly known as HP PerformanceCenter.
LoadRunner/XL (for large tests) and LoadRunner/RTE (RTE protocol support) introduced
3.0
—
April 1995
Added SQL Inspector (captures SQL statements sent from client applications to relational databases)
4.0
—
May 1996
Added Virtual User Generator, Controller, and Analysis tools
5.0
—
February 1997
Added SAP R/3 support
6.0
—
July 1999
Added Linux installation support
6.5
—
June 2000
Added "TurboLoad" technology (i.e. Run users as threads)
7.51
—
June 2000
Added Citrix ICA protocol support
7.8
—
September 2003
7.8
Feature Pack 1
September 2003
Added support for Windows XP.
8.0
—
August 2004
Added "Additional Attributes" to Runtime Settings.
8.1
—
August 2004
Added Web Click and Script technologies
9.0
—
August 2004
Re-branded to HP LoadRunner
9.10
—
February 2008
Added Web Services, Adobe AMF, and RDP
9.51
—
July 6, 2009
9.52
—
June 14, 2010
11.0
—
September 2010
11.0
Patch 1
January 6, 2011
11.0
Patch 2
February 22, 2011
Added support for Visual Studio 2010 and Protocol Updates to Ajax TruClient, Citrix, Flex, Web.
11.0
Patch 3
June 20, 2011
Added support for IE9, Mobile protocols, GraniteDS.
11.0
Patch 4
November 2011
HP SV (Service Virtualization Integration) with Controller, GWT-DFE(Google Web Toolkit- Data Format Extension), RTMP Tunneled, Messaging support, Streaming support, Flex Correlations.
11.50
—
November 2011
Added New VuGen IDE, Ajax TruClient for IE, Web Protocol Asynchronous Support, Flex, Mobile, .NET, Web Services, 64-bit applications recording, IPv6 support.
11.50
Patch 1
July 20, 2012
Added Ajax TruClient IE protocol.
12.00
—
March 18, 2014
Added ability to instantiate instances on Amazon EC2 directly from LoadRunner UI.
12.02
—
January 21, 2015
Added ability to instantiate instances on Microsoft Azure directly from LoadRunner UI
12.50
—
August 2015
JavaScript as a new scripting language for the Web-HTTP/HTML protocol
Chrome TruClient support added
Google Compute Engine supported as cloud provider
Ability to record a TruClient script with one browser and replay it with any
Integrated Network Virtualization solution (formerly known as Shunra)
Support of Win 10 and recording using MS Edge browser
Built-in Linux compatibility test in VuGen
Improved performance of Linux Load Generators, support of additional Linux distributions
12.53
Patch 1
June 15, 2016
Fixes a memory allocation issue that can impact Web HTTP/HTML protocols.
12.53
Patch 2
August 3, 2016
12.53
Patch 3
September 29, 2016
12.53
Patch 4
January 4, 2017
LoadRunner 12.53 Patch 4 contains various enhancements, and provides support for the following:
HPE Mobile Center 2.20. For details, see the Mobile Center Help.
HPE Network Virtualization (NV) 12.53 Patch 1
Google Web Toolkit (GWT) support:
GWT Request Factory
GWT 2.7.0
Verified for use with GWT 2.8.0 (full support to be added in a future version).
12.55
—
August 17, 2017
Added MQTT Protocol, support for JMeter tests, support for Windows 10 creators, Windows Server 2016, and Ubuntu 16.04. Also added support for Chromium 55 for TruClient protocol. LoadRunner 12.55 supports HTTP/2 64-bit record and replay and many performance improvements and enhancements.
12.56
—
February 26, 2018
LoadRunner 12.56 contains various enhancements, and provides support for the following:
Runtime Settings Search
New supported technologies and platforms
Protocol enhancements
TruClient enhancements
VuGen enhancements
Controller and Analysis enhancements
12.57
—
May 19, 2018
LoadRunner 12.57 contains various enhancements, and provides support for the following:
New supported technologies and platforms
Remote Terminal Emulator protocol compatibility with Windows 10
TruClient enhancements, including support for ChromiumOS version 63
VuGen enhancements
Controller enhancements
12.60
—
August 24, 2018
LoadRunner 12.60 contains various enhancements, and provides support for the following:
A runtime setting to enable/disable HTTP/2 features
New runtime setting that enables connecting to one or multiple IP addresses for Oracle NCA protocol
Enhanced desktop pool support with the ability to sync on bitmap timeout per step for PCoIP protocol
Dockerized Load Generators
Network Virtualization is now free
Save a graph as an image file
12.63
—
May 28, 2019
LoadRunner 12.63 contains various enhancements, and provides support for the following:
Significant reduction in the overall time for Analysis to process raw results
Script Wizard added for MQTT
Snapshot viewer supported for TruWeb scripts
TruClient now includes a VTS API function that replaces a specific value inside a set of columns with a new value.
Reduced memory consumption in load mode for TruClient browser
2020
—
December 17, 2019
LoadRunner 2020
New protocol called DevWeb has been added
Webservices has new WDF toolkit
Partial modern user interface and icons
LoadRunner Enterprise Integration
Online graphs in Controller with rich UI controls
SAP - Web protocol now supports Recording Report, predefined DFE, Asynchronous communication, and HAR file generation after replay
TruClient protocol has new search and toolbox with the latest Chromium and TruClient browser support
TruClient has new client side performance measurements
2020 Service Pack 1
—
April 2, 2020
LoadRunner 2020 Service Pack 1
Enhancements have been done in DevWeb, TruClient, Web Services, Citrix ICA, VTS, and Integration with LoadRunner Enterprise.
2020 Service Pack 2
—
July 1, 2020
LoadRunner 2020 Service Pack 2
Enhancements have been done in DevWeb, TruClient, PCoIP protocol, PCAP recording, VTS, and Integration with LoadRunner Enterprise.
This version introduces OneLG, a combined load generator installation for all of the LoadRunner family products. You select the relevant LoadRunner family product during installation, and can later swap to a different product if required.
Support for the execution of Gatling performance testing assets as part of Controller scenarios. This feature is currently available as tech preview.
2020 Service Pack 3
—
September 29, 2020
LoadRunner 2020 Service Pack 3
Enhancements have been done in DevWeb, TruClient, .NET protocol.
Load generator distribution for Vuser group scenarios
Ubuntu Server Linux 22.04 LTS 64-bit.
Load generators can now be installed on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Chaos testing support for Steadybit on-premise server
Online monitor graphs enhancements
Automatic reconnect for load generators
Installation of Gatling and JMeter is now optional for load generators
VTS now supports LDAPS connection to the domain controller for NTLM authentication.
TruClient protocols include the following updates:Upgraded browser version support Chromium: Version 113 TruClient Browser: Equivalent to Firefox version 110
This release introduces the new Cloud for AWS protocol. With this protocol, you can create Vuser scripts to monitor the usage of Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)
DevWeb and Web protocol updates
SAPGUI updates
Kubernetes orchestrator updates
The LoadRunner Enterprise Administration REST API enables you to un-assign a user, specified by ID, from a specific project
24.1
24.1
Feb, 2024
SteadyBit chaos integration
New simplified masthead
Redesigned module navigation menu.
The load test Dashboard was replaced with a Home Page
The LoadRunner Enterprise Administration dashboard now refreshes automatically to provide you with live updates and notifications.
REST APIs are now supported for updating passwords in various LoadRunner Enterprise components and configuration tools. This lets you change passwords more easily, with minimal user intervention.
To reduce the risk of credential-based attacks, LoadRunner Enterprise’s built-in authentication now includes user lockout settings. These settings let you determine how many unsuccessful login attempts are allowed within a specified time frame before a user is locked out.
LoadRunner Enterprise now supports working on a FIPS-enabled environment. It is compliant with the FIPS 140-2 standard, for the protection of sensitive or valuable data.
You can now install a LoadRunner Web Recorder extension in Chrome to record events for a Vuser script. This allows you to create scripts in cases where the security policy blocks the standard VuGen recorder.
This release includes an integration with CyberArk, providing support for use of CyberArk identity security for privileged accounts. A new LoadRunner API enables you to connect to the CyberArk vault and query for passwords.
VuGen contains a new script designer for creating AWS protocol scripts. Using the script designer, you can generate an SQS script without having to manually insert code
TruClient browser updates 118-120
Citrix, Java and SAP updates to latest versions
You can now push real-time data from a Controller scenario run to the Datadog platform. The sent data includes performance metrics and scenario details from the run.
Scripting Languages
LoadRunner client emulation scripts are usually created using the ANSI C programming language.[9] However, Java[10] and .Net programs can also be run by LoadRunner. Version 12.50 added the use of JavaScript for Web-HTTP/HTML scripts.
Scripts from other testing tools such as Apache JMeter, Gatling, NUnit, and Selenium can be run by LoadRunner by declaring an interface library. This enables scripts to send key-value pairs to the Controller as the script runs, enabling response times to be associated with specific conditions such as the number of items displayed in the User Interface.
LoadRunner scripts can also be called from within Jenkins.
Support for JMeter Tests
LoadRunner 12.55 enables testers to run Apache JMeter scripts from Controller, alongside Vuser scripts can view the results to LoadRunner measurements. This feature is provided as beta version.[11]
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