Install the connector on a Linux machine

The connector is a standalone component for connecting devices to the lab. You can also install the connector as a standalone component on a Linux machine, and configure it to connect to the OpenText Functional Testing Lab server. Devices connected to distributed connector machines become part of the device lab.

For details on how to see all your connectors, see View and manage connectors.

Before you start

Before installing or updating the connector, make sure the following prerequisites are met.

Prerequisite Details
System requirements

Check that your machine complies with the recommended system requirements and that your devices are supported. For details, see Connector requirements in the Support matrix, Connect devices, and Installation and configuration best practices.
iOS devices If you are going to connect iOS devices to the connector machine using a USB cable, make sure that IPV6 is enabled.

For a new installation only:

  1. Make sure that an OpenText Functional Testing Lab server is not already installed on the machine.

  2. The connector must be able to access the server.
    To check the connection run the following curl command and check that you get a 200 OK status:

    curl -I http/s://<OpenText Functional Testing Lab server IP address>:<port>

  3. If Nginx is already installed on the connector machine, remove it before installing the OpenText Functional Testing Lab connector.

  4. Obtain an access key for the connector from the server.

    • Admin user: Select the Connectors tab. Click Generate New Key and provide a name, type (Connector), expiration date, description (optional).
    • Non-admin user: request one from your admin. Select Contact Your Admin from the Help menu Help menu.

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Considerations for Ubuntu

There are a number of considerations to be taken into account when installing the server on Ubuntu. For more details, see the Support matrix.

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Considerations for iOS 17 and later

To connect devices running on iOS 17 and later, internet access is required to fetch a signature key from Apple from time to time. The server machine must have access to the following:

  • http://gs.apple.com
    OpenText recommends allowing access to all *.apple domains.

If the server machine accesses the internet via a proxy server, configure the proxy server details in in the Administration settings. For details, see Proxy settings in Administration settings.

If access to the internet is not permitted on the server machine, make sure that the connector can access the Apple servers. If the connector uses a proxy server, configure the following proxy server details in the connector.properties file located in <installation_dir>/connector or server/conf/:

  • APPLE_HTTP_PROXY_HOST=<proxy host name>

  • APPLE_HTTP_PROXY_PORT=<proxy port number>

  • APPLE_HTTP_PROXY_USERNAME= <username for connecting to the proxy server>

  • APPLE_HTTP_PROXY_PASSWORD= <password for connecting to the proxy server>

See the Support matrix for supported operating systems and additional considerations that should also be taken into account.

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Download the connector

Download the connector in one of the following ways:

    • For admins, Select Download Connector in the Connectors page.
    • For a non-admin user, select Download Connector from the Help menu Help menu of the OpenText Functional Testing Lab console.

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Install the connector

The standalone connector for OpenText Functional Testing Lab can be installed as a full installation, or as an upgrade to an existing installation of the connector. The installer checks what files are already present, and installs or updates the relevant files.

To install the connector:

  1. On your Linux machine, log in as root . Ubuntu: Requires sudo permissions to install.
  2. Copy the file to your Linux machine and extract the installation files: 
    unzip <name of Linux connector installation file>.zip –d <Target directory Name>
  3. Change directory to the target directory:
    cd <Target directory name>/
  4. Run the connector installer:
    ./<install_connector-x64 file name>.bin
  5. Read the License Agreement, and select Y to accept the terms and proceed with the installation. Choose an installation folder, and a local folder for temporary files. Fill in the information or answer the questions in each of the Installation sections according the following guidelines.

    SectionDetails
    User configurationUse an existing Linux OS user, or click n to create the default user.
    Specify the password for this user.
    AuthenticationEnter your credentials. Enter the access key provided by your admin.

    OpenText Core Functional Testing Lab: The SSL Enabled option should be selected.

    If connecting over a proxy, select Server address in the proxy section, and specify the server, port, and credentials if required.

    Connector configurationProvide a meaningful name for the connector, as this allows you to effectively filter devices based on connector names. Enter the Connector's IP address (if the IP is static) or FQDN, or accept the defaults.

    6. For details on how to change the configuration after the installation, see Change the configuration of the connector.

  6. Review the pre-installation summary and press Enter to continue with the installation of the connector.

    Caution: To insure integrity and confidentiality of the information stored with OpenText Functional Testing Lab, we strongly recommend that you incorporate file system monitoring on the installation and temporary folders.

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Connect and verify devices

  1. If you have not already done so, make sure to follow the steps for initial device configuration when connecting Android and iOS devices.
  2. Connect the device to the connector machine using a USB cable. On some devices, when you connect the device, there may be notification, trust, or location pop-ups. Accept these pop-ups. If a popup with USB options opens, make sure the option for file transfer is selected and close the popup.
  3. Wait until the Agent is running on the device.

  4. If the Agent does not start up on the device, verify that the devices are recognized.

    Device OS Steps
    Android

    Run the command ./adb devices on the Linux connector machine (If you are a root user, change directory to /opt/FunctionalTestingLabForMobileAndWeb/connector/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools)

    All your connected devices should be listed. The status of the device should be "device" and not any other state, for example "unauthorized".

    If you are connecting with a C-Type USB device, such as One Plus and Nexus 5, the idVendor value may not have been recognized.
    Workaround: Run dmesg to obtain the idVendor value, beginning with 0x. Log in as the user specified during installation. Run the sudo ~/add_android_vendor.sh <idVendor> script.

    iOS
    1. Go to:

      /opt/FunctionalTestingLabForMobileAndWeb/Connector/libimobiledevice/linux/

    2. Run ./idevice_id –l



    The result of this command should be a list of devices IDs (UDID). If the command returns an empty result or ERROR message, try the following:

    1. On the server or connector machine, log in as root .
    2. Locate the process ID of “usbmuxd”"

      ps aux | grep '[u]sbmuxd'
    3. Kill the process:

      kill –9 <processID>
    4. Start usbmuxd again:

      usbmuxd
    5. Run idevice_id –l again to see if the device is recognized.

    If the devices are connected correctly, try to manually launch the Launcher app. If you see an Untrusted App Developer notification:

    1. Click Trust.
    2. Disconnect the device.
    3. Wait 5 seconds and then reconnect the device.

  5. iOS devices only:

    If you have not already done so, enable UI Automation on the device in Settings > Developer > Enable UI Automation. Disconnect the device, wait 5 seconds, and then reconnect it.

    Important note for Enterprise certificates only:

    If you install apps that are signed with an Enterprise certificate but do not use a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution, you are prompted to trust the Enterprise developer the first time the app is installed. To trust the profile, go to Settings > General > Device Management, select the Enterprise developer profile, and trust it. These actions can be performed remotely on the device.

    All users who install your enterprise-signed app for the first time also need an internet connection. After an Enterprise developer profile has been trusted on a device, additional apps with the same profile do not need to be trusted again, provided that the devices on which they are opened are connected to the internet. If the Enterprise developer profile of the application under test is not trusted, the Agent is not able to open the app and a 1009 Error: "Cannot communicate with AUT" results.

  6. After connecting the device, perform any additional configurations that may be required for your specific device. For more details, see Known device issues.

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Start and stop the connector

You can manage the connector with the following commands.

Action

Command
Start the connector service FTLab start
Stop the connector service FTLab stop
Restart the connector service FTLab restart

Ubuntu:

  • Commands to manage the connector service must be run with sudo. For example, sudo /etc/init.d/FTLab start

  • Log information will print to the log file {installation path}/log/hpmc_daemon_service.log and not console output.

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Enable localization

To display system apps (apps that are used to run the device itself) in a supported language other than English, after installing the connector, go to /opt/FunctionalTestingLabForMobileAndWeb/connector/conf/connector.properties and uncomment the following line in the file:
ENABLE_LOCALIZATION=true

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Uninstall the connector

You can uninstall the connector as follows:

  1. Log into the Linux connector machine as root user.

  2. Change directory to the connector installation directory:
    cd <path to installation folder> (Default /opt/FunctionalTestingLabForMobileAndWeb/)
  3. Run the uninstall script by entering the following command:
    ./FTLab_uninstall
  4. Press enter to proceed with uninstalling the connector.

Note: If you installed or upgraded the connector using an existing Linux user, you are asked during the uninstall whether to remove this user. If you used the default new user created by OpenText Functional Testing Lab during the installation, this user is deleted automatically.

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Change the configuration of the connector

If you need to modify your connector details, for example to change the server or connector details, you can use the update tool. When you run the tool, you can update the following details.

Machine Details that can be modified
Server

  • IP address or FQDN

  • Port

  • Secure or non secure connection (SSL)

  • Proxy information

Connector

  • Credentials

  • Connector name

  • Connector IP address

  • Connector port

To change the configuration of the connector:

  1. On the connector machine, log in as root or as a user in the Linux sudoers file.
  2. Navigate to your connector installation directory.
    Default opt/FunctionalTestingLabForMobileAndWeb/
  3. Run the following command:
    ./FTLab_update
  4. When prompted, specify the new details.
  5. Restart the connector at the end of the process to allow the change to take effect.
  6. SSL access only: When you modify the connector details following a change to the server details, a new certificate is generated for the connector. Testing tool users also need to reconfigure their SSL access to OpenText Functional Testing Lab.

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Updates

From time to time, updates are released that include enhancements and fixes.

Product Details
OpenText Functional Testing Lab

To benefit from the latest enhancements and fixes, install the latest patch for your current version. Server patches can be downloaded from Software Licenses and Downloads. The latest patch includes the content of any previous patches. There is no need to install previous patches. Follow the patch installation instructions included in the patch release notes.

Important: If you use the remote iOS signing service, this should be upgraded before you upgrade the server.

When upgrading the server to the latest patch, the following must also be upgraded:

  • All connectors. OpenText recommends enabling the auto-update setting for connectors. This eliminates the need for manual updates to connectors when you install an update to the server. For details, see General in Administration settings.

  • Manual signing tools (if applicable).

    • iOS Enabler for manual signing of iOS apps. After installing the server patch, the iOS  enabler is available in the Agent folder or from the ADM Marketplace.

    • Android Enabler for manual signing of Android apps. After installing the server patch, the updated Android enabler is available in the server folder or from the ADM Marketplace.

OpenText Core SDP

When OpenText deploys an update to the server, connectors must also be upgraded. OpenText recommends enabling the auto-update setting for connectors. For details, see Administration settings.

Note: If you use the iOS or Android Enabler for manual signing of apps, these need to be upgraded when the server is updated. You can download the latest available version from the ADM Marketplace.

See also: