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Micro Focus LoadRunner

Software Version: 12.56

Publication date: February 26, 2018

The following sections provide information and known issues for LoadRunner 12.56.

• What's New in LoadRunner 12.56
• Installation and configuration information
• Notes and limitations
• Deprecated features and protocols
• Beta and tech preview features
• Additional resources
• Legal Notices

What's New in LoadRunner 12.56

LoadRunner 12.56 includes many new features, enhancements, and usability improvements.

You can find information on What's New for this version in the LoadRunner Help Center.

For information about the features in previous versions, use the following links.

• Version 12.55
• Version 12.53

Installation and configuration information

You can find information and components for installation as follows:

• For information on LoadRunner and Performance Center system requirements and supported versions, see System Requirements (previously named Product Availability Matrix or PAM).

• For details about supported integrations for LoadRunner, see the Integration Support Matrices.

• For details on installation and upgrade, see the LoadRunner Installation Guide.

  Note: LoadRunner version 12.55 must be installed before you can install LoadRunner version 12.56.

• All of the standalone installations (for example, for the load generator) can be found in the installation package's Standalone Applications folder.

• All of the additional components (such as the Citrix Agent and so on) can be found in the installation package's Additional Components folder.

Installation permission requirements:

• The installation process, for all components, requires a full administrator account (root account for Linux systems) for all operating systems.

• After installation, all of the LoadRunner applications and components can run under a standard user account (an administrator account is not required), with UAC and DEP enabled.

Notes and limitations

This section includes pre-installation notes, issues, and workarounds for LoadRunner version 12.56.

For additional limitations and workarounds, see the Troubleshooting and Limitations sections in the Help Centers.

• Installation and upgrade
• Windows 10 (Creators Update) and Windows Server 2016 Operating Systems
• Permissions
• VuGen and protocols
• TruClient
• Controller and General
• Help and PDFs
• Non-English operating systems
• Integrations

Installation and upgrade

Windows 10 (Creators Update) and Windows Server 2016 Operating Systems

Permissions

• The TruClient browser for Internet Explorer requires Read access to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer registry key and Write access to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Hewlett-Packard\TruClient registry key.
• When running the LoadRunner License utility with UAC enabled, LoadRunner prompts you for administrator credentials.
  Resolution: Run the utility as administrator.

• When recording and replaying TruClient - Web scripts (and recording Web protocol scripts) on a Window Server operating system, it is recommended to disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration (IE ESC).

  Resolution:

  • In Windows 2012 R2, 2016: Server Manager > Local Server > Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration.
  • In Windows 2008 R2: Server Manager > Security Information > Configure IE ESC.
    

• When using Visual Studio and 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 2015\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.

• 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.

• 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 VuGen machine. For details, see How to Record a Vuser Script in the User Guide.

• The network settings for load generators on Linux machines cannot be configured by a standard (non-administrator) user account.

  Resolution: When working on a Linux operating system, run lr_agent_settings with administrator permissions.

VuGen and protocols

• SSL2 is no longer supported.

• Replaying Web-HTML/HTTP scripts: To disable HTTP/2, manually configure your script’s runtime settings:

  1. From your script’s folder, open the default.cfg configuration file in a text editor.

  2. Under the WEB section, add the boolean key, EnableHTTP2, and set it to false as follows:

     EnableHTTP2 = false

• Conflicts may occur when using parameters in a Java script that contains XML content. For more details, check the Knowledge Base.

• Recording on Microsoft Edge browser is not supported for the Windows Sockets (WinSock) protocol.

• In some cases, when you use the LoadRunner proxy to record a local application, the proxy settings are not automatically restored to their original values after the recording session. This can prevent your computer from accessing local and external Internet sites.
  Resolution: In your browser, reset the proxy settings manually.

• Parsing a long json in the Replay log, or a json file containing a long line, may cause a short delay when scrolling in the Replay log.

• If you have a slow connection from VuGen or Analysis to ALM, this may be because the VuGen or Analysis machine does not have access to the WAN, and so cannot verify the digital signature of the relevant files.

  Resolution: Download and import the certificates from https://support.globalsign.com/customer/portal/articles/1426602-globalsign-root-certificates using certmgr MMC until the issue is resolved (you might not need to import all the certificates).

• When you run a Java protocol script, the replay status may be Script Not Run and some errors may appear in the mdrv.log file. However, due to Java internal architecture, these errors may not be included in the VuGen Output and Errors panes. This occurs when VuGen fails to initialize a Java Vuser, and JVM then terminates the replay process.

  Resolution: Look for errors directly in the mdrv.log file (you can find this in the script’s folder). If the entry in the log is due to a memory-related issue, try using different memory options for Java in the runtime settings.

• When recording a script, some applications may be unable to connect to a server using SSL. Errors such as "Invalid certificate" and "SSL Handshake Failed" may appear. This is because VuGen now uses SHA-256-signed certificates for recording of SSL-encrypted communication instead of the older SHA-1-signed certificates.

  Resolution: Instruct VuGen to use SHA-1-signed certificates, as follows:

  1. Add the following lines to <LoadRunner root>\config\vugen.ini:

     • [WebRecorder]
     • ProxyCertificateHash=sha1

  2. Delete the following files from <LoadRunner root>\bin\certs\:

     • wplusCA_Expiration_2022.crt
     • wplusCAOnly_Expiration_2022.crt
     • wplusCert_Expiration_2022.crt
  3. Restart VuGen and record the application again.

• In order for LoadRunner to work correctly with SAP GUI 7.40, patch gui740_13-10013011 (or later) must be applied to the SAP GUI installation.

• 64-bit replay for C Vuser scripts is not supported on Linux-based load generators.

• Java-based technologies are not yet supported by Microsoft Edge. Therefore, we do not recommend selecting this browser emulation for the replay of Java-based protocols (Flex, Java over HTTP, Oracle NCA).

• Web Page Diagnostics are not supported for scripts using HTTP/2 protocol. Disable Web Page Diagnostics in Controller > Diagnostics > Configuration > Diagnostics Distribution dialog box.

• Uploading a buffer (request body) larger than 64 KB is not supported for scripts using HTTP/2 protocol.

• When you use VuGen to create a scenario, if the Controller is open (and was opened by double-clicking a .lrs scenario file), you will not be given the option to add the script to the current scenario, and the Controller will be closed, losing any unsaved changes.

• If you open a Micro Focus 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.

  Resolution: Close the error and continue working as you normally would.

• Runtime 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 resolution: Enable the Continue on Error option in the Runtime setting.

• When adding a conditional breakpoint based on a parameter value, the value is not updated immediately. Therefore, in the script step that follows, the condition may be ignored even though the argument value has been updated.

TruClient

• If you run a TruClient script in the Controller with Chromium or TruClient Browser, the Connections graph is always empty.

• An error is generated when replaying a TruClient script in IE using a predefined bandwidth (in Runtime Settings > Network > Speed Simulation).

• Recording snapshots is not available with Chromium or TruClient Browser.

• If you added custom configurations to the pref.js or user.js files for TruClient scripts recorded with LoadRunner 11.52, you will need to re-add them to the LoadRunner 12.xx script files.

  Tip: It is recommended to back up existing files before you begin editing scripts with custom configurations in LoadRunner 12.xx.

• Execution time of TruClient scripts replayed with TruClient Browser or Chromium will appear slower than those replayed on TruClient Firefox or Internet Explorer. This is a result of the TruClient instrumentation on TruClient Browser/Chromium. This will primarily impact the throughput generated by the Vusers.

  Tip:When replaying TruClient scripts with TruClient Browser or Chromium, run additional TruClient Vusers on more load generator machines than you would with TruClient Firefox or Internet Explorer.

• The TruClient IE cache simulation mechanism is not supported on load generators running on Windows OS systems installed with KB3000850, Windows 10, or Windows Server 2016. As a result, when running TruClient scripts in IE on a load generator with one of these operating systems, the browser’s cache may not function as expected. This may cause inconsistent server load and measurements.

  Resolution: Remove Microsoft KB3000850 (not relevant for Windows 10 or Windows 2016).

Controller and General

• The default number of Vusers in a Vuser group in a scenario has been changed to 1 instead of 10.

• When using Controller with MI Listener, and Network Virtualization is enabled, you may encounter the following issues:

  • When you start a scenario, the first batch of Vusers go directly from pending to stopped. All other Vusers run as expected.

  • When you stop a scenario, all Vusers are stopped, and the Start Scenario button is enabled for 1 second then returns to disabled, and stays disabled.

    Workaround: Delete the first Vuser, the Start Scenario button then reverts to enabled.

• The Network Delay Time monitor shows "No Data" in the online graphs when using Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.
  Resolution: On the Windows 2008 R2 machine:
  

  1. Install all the latest updates.
  2. Add support for SHA-2 signing and verification functionality. For details, see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/3033929.
• When using the SiteScope monitor, you cannot change the counters already saved with scenario.
  Resolution: Remove all existing SiteScope counters, close the dialog box and re-add them.
• 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.
  Resolution: Restart the VTSService Windows service. For example, use the “net stop vtsservice” to stop the service, and “net start vtsservice” to restart it.
• Data Format Extensions (DFEs) are supported on Windows operating systems only.
• Webtrace is not supported with -proto tcp" and "-proto udp in the following Linux environments: RHEL 7, OEL 7, and Ubuntu 14.04.

JMeter:

• From version 12.56, the JMeter Active Threads and JMeter Transactions monitors have been removed. Instead, you can view data in the Running Vusers and Transaction Monitor graphs.

• The timeout for the JMeter shutdown gracefully command has been reduced to 2 minutes.

• When running a JMeter script, there might be small differences in the maximum value shown in the online and offline Running Vusers graphs, viewed from Controller or Analysis.

• If a JMeter JMX script has an associated CSV parameters file, the CSV file must be manually copied onto the load generator running JMeter, to the same location referenced in the JMX file.

  For example:

  <CSVDataSet guiclass="TestBeanGUI" testclass="CSVDataSet" testname="FlighBookParam_CSV_Config" enabled="true">

  <stringProp name="delimiter">,</stringProp>

  <stringProp name="fileEncoding"></stringProp>

  <stringProp name="filename">C:\Parameters.csv</stringProp> //This is the local path to where the script was created in JMX

Network Virtualization and NV Insights Report

• Network Virtualization version 9.13 is installed as part of LoadRunner 12.56.

• When installing Network Virtualization on Windows in custom mode, you must manually reboot the machine at the end of installation.

• When installing Network Virtualization on Linux, you must restart the LoadRunner agent at the end of installation.

• Network Virtualization emulation in Linux works only in Per group mode.

• The NV Analytics report in VuGen is renamed to NV Insights report.

• The NV Insights report is not supported on Linux.

Help and PDFs

• For LoadRunner installed on a Windows Server operating system, Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration (IE ESC) must be disabled in order to view Help Center content. It is enabled by default:

  • In Windows 2012 R2, 2016: Server Manager > Local Server > Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration.

  • In Windows 2008 R2: Server Manager > Security Information > Configure IE ESC.

• On certain machines with high level security settings, you need to trust the domain (admhelp.microfocus.com/lr, admhelp.microfocus.com/vugen, admhelp.microfocus.com/tc, admhelp.microfocus.com/pc) in order to view the Help Center. To do this, open the Help Center in Internet Explorer, and accept the site as a trusted domain. Then you will be able to use the context sensitive and menu help from the product.

• On Windows 8.1 and later, disabling UAC may block Acrobat Reader from opening PDF files. Follow the Windows Help instructions to enable UAC and trust Acrobat.

Non-English operating systems

• If you install a language pack after you have already generated an Analysis session, you will not be able to open the session 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.
• On non-English operating systems, several components may contain untranslated items, such as the Print Preview page in VuGen, log files, and installation screens.
• 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.
• Path names cannot be in multi-byte format. If you need to use non-English symbols in paths to scripts, scenarios, results, or analysis sessions, make sure to select the appropriate locale in the your machine's Region and Language settings. Script names, however, must be in English.

Integrations

• Micro Focus Service Virtualization: If a Service Virtualization server uses credentials for both SSL and monitors, then the Service Virtualization project cannot be correctly imported to a scenario.

  Resolution: Configure the Service Virtualization server to use credentials only for SSL.

Deprecated features and protocols

This section provides information about features and protocols whose support was partially or fully discontinued, or will be discontinued in future versions of LoadRunner and Performance Center.

Removed features

The following features were removed from LoadRunner in version 12.53:

• VuGen Protocol Advisor

• VuGen Test Results report and the corresponding Generate report during script execution option.

• Parameters Database Query Wizard (Data Wizard)
  Instead, use the new Import Parameter feature that was added in LoadRunner 12.53, enabling the import of parameter values from a CSV or a text file. You can use this feature to obtain values from practically any data source, by exporting the source data into a file and then importing it into VuGen. For details, see Import Parameter Values from a File in the LoadRunner Help Center.

Protocols supported for replay only

If a protocol has support for replay only, then you can no longer record scripts based on that protocol.

Fully removed protocol support

There is no record or replay support for the following protocols:

Protocols planned for removal in future versions

Support for the following protocols will be discontinued in upcoming versions of LoadRunner and Performance Center. We recommend that you do not use these protocols for new scripts:

• COM/DCOM

• Ajax Click & Script

Beta and tech preview features

This product includes limited functionality entitlements – these can be either “beta” or “tech preview” features (as indicated in the What’s New). This means that these beta or tech preview features may be undergoing further testing before their full capabilities are released. These features, including their capabilities and content, are provided on an “as is” basis. Micro Focus disclaims all other warranties. Micro Focus shall not be responsible for any loss or damage suffered by any customer as a result of their use of any beta or tech preview feature.

Micro Focus reserves the right to change or remove a beta or tech preview feature at any time, without further notice. These features, which include basic capabilities, are currently offered as embedded features accompanying the product license. In the future, Micro Focus may offer advanced capabilities for the same features at a separate cost.

Should you encounter any bugs, glitches, lack of functionality, or other problems with any beta or tech preview feature, please let us know immediately. Your help in this regard is greatly appreciated.

Send your feedback to vugen.feedback@microfocus.com.

Additional resources

The Usage Hub enables you to view license information and usage for all HPE Software products and solutions that are installed in your environment. The Usage Hub is a central server that runs in the background. It collects, maintains, and provides a centralized view of software deployments, license assets, and the product features.

In addition, follow these links to learn more about LoadRunner and other HPE products.

• Software Support Online
• Software Site
• LoadRunner Resources
• LoadRunner Blog
• LoadRunner/Performance Center/StormRunner Load Community Forums
• LoadRunner Support Forum
• LoadRunner Knowledge Base
• LoadRunner on Facebook
• LoadRunner on LinkedIn
• LoadRunner on Twitter

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