Manage remote installations

You can upgrade your LoadRunner Enterprise host and standalone load generator machines from LoadRunner Enterprise 202x to the latest installation using the Remote Installation feature.

Note: This feature replaces the patch installer that was available in earlier LoadRunner Enterprise versions. Remote installation does not support upgrading hosts from LoadRunner Enterprise 12.6x installations to 202x.

In this topic:

Upload an installation package

You can upload the latest LoadRunner Enterprise host and NV installation packages to the LoadRunner Enterprise server machine, and then install them remotely on your LoadRunner Enterprise host and standalone load generator machines.

To upload an installation package:

  1. In LoadRunner Enterprise Administration, select Maintenance > Remote Installations.

  2. Click Create New Installation, and enter a name and description (optional) for the new installation package.

    Note: The name cannot contain spaces or include the following characters: / : " ? ' < > | * % ^ , ! { } ( ) ; = # \

  3. Select an installation package to upload:

    Host

    Installer package for a LoadRunner Enterprise host installation.

    The package is available from <LRE installation directory>\Setup\Install\Host\LoadRunner_x64.msi.
    OneLG

    A combined load generator installer package for all of the LoadRunner family products: LoadRunner Enterprise, LoadRunner Professional, and LoadRunner Cloud.

    The package is available from <LRE installation directory>\Standalone Applications\SetupOneLG.exe (extract SetupOneLG.exe, and upload SetupOneLG.msi from the OneLG_x64 folder).

    NV for Controller

    Network Virtualization installer package for a LoadRunner Enterprise host installation.

    The package is available from <LRE installation directory>\Additional Components\Network Virtualization\NV4ControllerSetup.exe.
    NV for OneLG

    A combined Network Virtualization installer package for a load generator installation.

    The package is available from <LRE installation directory>\Additional Components\Network Virtualization\NV4LGSetup.exe.

  4. Click and navigate to the location of the installation package. Select an installation package and click Open.

    Note:  

    • Only a Micro Focus executable file (.msi for a Host or OneLG installation, or .exe for an NV installation) can be uploaded to the repository.

    • The remote installation mechanism supports installing .msi files only. If the host installation you want to install is in an .exe file (NV installations), you must first extract all the files from the .exe, and then upload the .msi file to LoadRunner Enterprise.

  5. Click Save to start the upload. The package is added to the Remote Installations grid in which you can see the following details:

    UI Name Description
    ID The package ID.
    Name The name assigned by the user to the package.
    Package

    The official name of the package. For example:

    • LoadRunner_x64.msi for a LoadRunner Enterprise host installation.

    • OneLG_x64.msi for a OneLG installation (a combined load generator installer that can be used with all LoadRunner family products).

    • NV4ControllerSetup.exe for an NV for Controller installation.

    • NV4LGSetup.exe for an NV for OneLG installation (an NV installer package for a load generator installation that can be used with all LoadRunner family products).
    Status The package installation status: Uploading, Processing, or Created.
    Version The version of the package extracted from the installation file. For example, 21.2.0.293.
    Installation Type

    The package installation type: Host Installation or OneLG, NV for Controller, or NV for OneLG. This helps prevent installing LoadRunner Enterprise Hosts on standalone load generator machines, or vice versa.
    Description

    Description of the installation package (if provided).
    Creation Date

    The time and date the package was uploaded.

  6. After installing a host or OneLG package, you must reconfigure the host. For details, see Reconfigure hosts.

  7. When a package has been uploaded to the system, it can be remotely installed on existing LoadRunner Enterprise hosts. For details, see Install upgrade packages on hosts remotely.

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Install upgrade packages on hosts remotely

After you have uploaded an installation package, you can install it on your LoadRunner Enterprise host and standalone load generator machines.

To remotely install an upgrade package:

  1. Prerequisites

    To perform a remote host installation, you first need to upload the installation package to the system. For details, see Upload an installation package.

    Note: To install a host remotely, you must disable User Account Control (UAC) on the installation machine.

  2. Select the hosts on which to install the package

    1. In LoadRunner Enterprise Administration, select Maintenance > Remote Installations. The Remote Installations page opens.

    2. Click the name link of the package you want to install. The Remote Installation details page opens, displaying information about the selected package. The Install on Hosts panel displays any hosts on which the package has been installed.

    3. Select the hosts on which to install the package

      1. In the Install on Hosts pane, click Add. The Add hosts for package installation dialog box opens.

      2. Select the hosts on which you want to install the package and click Add.

        The selected hosts are added to the Install on Hosts list. To hide the hosts on which the package has already been installed, click Show only non-upgraded hosts.

        Note:  

        • Packages can only be installed on LoadRunner Enterprise host and standalone load generator machines that are Operational and in Idle state.

        • Since the upgrade process is dependent on the network and the resources of your LoadRunner Enterprise host machines, we recommend initially upgrading a small number of hosts, and increasing this number gradually to ensure that upgrade speed does not become too slow.

    4. Click Save & Install to start the package installation.

      Packages are downloaded to the following path on the host machine:

      C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Local\Temp\al_patches

  3. View the progress of the package installation

    Click Task Manager in the masthead to check the status and progress of the package installation tasks run in your project.

    The Task Manager displays the following information:

    UI Elements

    Description
    Overall Progress

    Displays the overall status of the remote package installation tasks run in your project.

    Tasks are removed from the Task Manager after 24 hours.

    Search. Enables you to search hosts by host name. Type the name of a host (or part of the name) in the box. LoadRunner Enterprise displays all hosts that contain the search string.
    Filter By

    Enables you to display only those hosts on which the remote package installation process is running, failed, or was successfully installed.

    Reinstall

    If a remote package installation fails, enables you to select the hosts on which the installation failed, and rerun the installation process.
    Host name

    The name of the host on which the package installation is or was installed.
    Status

    The installation status of the package installation (Created or Uploading).
    Start Time

    The start date and time of the package installation.
    End Time

    The end date and time of the package installation.
    Message

    The status and message for the last package installation task.

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Notes and limitations

The following are notes and limitations for remote installations:

  • Remote installations are not supported on hosts located behind a firewall.

  • Disable the SmartScreen filter in Windows if you encounter issues downloading an installation package.

  • Performing a remote host installation on LoadRunner Enterprise versions earlier than 2021 R2 fails due to a missing prerequisite on host machines: Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015-2019 (vc2015_2019_redist_xxxx).

  • If you attempt to download Network Virtualization installation files from the Internet or an FTP site, the files are blocked to protect the computer from untrusted files and the following message is displayed:

    Resolution: Before installing NV, unblock the files as follows:

    1. Right-click one of the NV installation executable files located in <NV installation path>\Additional Components\Network Virtualization, and select Properties.

    2. If there is an Unblock check box in the General tab, select it and click OK.

    3. Verify that the Unblock check box is gone.

    4. Repeat for each executable file in the Network Virtualization folder.

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See also: