Install and configure servers and hosts

This section describes how to install and configure OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering servers and hosts.

In this topic:

Install servers and hosts

1. Launch the installer.

   Download the installer package, and run setup.exe.

   If an earlier version of the product is installed on your machine, the installation process detects the older version, and gives you the option to upgrade or exit the installation.

2. Select an installation option.

   The setup program starts and displays the installation menu page.

   Select OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering or OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering Host.

   Note: If a host machine is to be used as a load generator only, we recommend that you install the Standalone Load Generator because the installation requires less disk space, and it is less time-consuming to move the load generator's setup files (compared to the OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering host). For details on installing the Standalone Load Generator, see Install standalone components on Windows. To install a load generator on Linux, see Install a load generator on Linux.

3. If necessary, install prerequisite software.

   Specific software needs to be installed on the machine before you can install OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering. For details, see the Support Matrix. If the prerequisite software is not already installed on your computer, a dialog box opens displaying the list of prerequisite programs that are required.

   Click OK and follow the on-screen instructions to install the prerequisite software. You cannot continue with the component installation unless all the prerequisite software is installed.

   Note:  

   • In general, we strongly recommend performing a restart of your machine before performing a host installation.
   • If prompted to restart the machine after installing the prerequisite software, you MUST restart before continuing with the installation. After the restart, run setup.exe again to continue with the installation. If the installation continues from where it left off before restarting, we recommend starting setup.exe again. This enables the installer to detect the installed prerequisites and continue with the installation.
   • If Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 10 is listed on this page when installing a server, close the installation, install IIS, and restart the installation.

4. Start the installation.

   • For a server: The OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering Setup Wizard opens, displaying the Welcome page. Click Next.

   • For a host: The OpenText Professional Performance Engineering Setup Wizard opens, displaying the Welcome page. Select OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering Host, and click Next.

5. Review the License agreement.

   To accept the terms of the license agreement, select I accept the terms in the License Agreement.

   For hosts only:

   • If you plan to run JMeter or Gatling scripts, make sure to select the Install … after installation option during setup.

   • To help us improve the quality, reliability, and performance of the product, select Participate in improvement program. This enables us to collect anonymous information about your software and hardware configuration, and about how you use the product. Click More Details in the user interface for more information.

     Caution: Participating in the improvement program can create additional overhead on the host machine.

   Click Next.

6. Select a destination folder.

   Specify the location in which to install the component. By default, it is installed to C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenText\Enterprise Performance Engineering\.

   To choose a different location, enter the location or click the Change button, select a location, and click OK.

   Note:  

   • When upgrading from  2020 SP2 or SP3, the location field is read-only.

   • (Host only) To minimize issues related to the Microsoft Windows API path length limitation, it is recommended to choose a short installation directory path. For example: “C:\OT_Host”.

   • If your system requires support for file paths longer than 260 characters, two registry keys must be added to OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering servers and hosts, either by running the Configuration wizard, or manually by performing the following:

     1. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem, and set the value of LongPathsEnabled to 1.

     2. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System, and set the value of LongPathsEnabled to 1.

     3. Reboot the machine.

     For OneLG machines, you can only add the registry keys manually.

   Click Next.

7. Start the installation process.

   The wizard prompts you to confirm the details and start the installation. To review or change any settings, click Back.

   Click Install to start the installation. The wizard displays the installation progress.

8. On completion of the installation, the Finish page opens in which you can view the installation log files and install OpenText Network Virtualization (NV). The installation is complete, regardless of the selected NV installation option.

   • Click the Open Installation Log link to view the installation log files. The files are also available on the server or host in the configurationWizardLog_pcs.txt file in the <installdir>\orchidtmp\Configuration folder. Log files for the NV installation, if installed, are available in C:\Temp\NV_Logs.

   • To install NV, choose one of the below options, or click Do not install to skip NV installation. You can install NV manually at a later time.

     • Typical. Automatically launches a non-interactive NV installation, using the default NV settings.

     • Custom. Automatically launches an interactive NV installation, enabling you to set the installation folder, data folder, and port to be used, and select which NV components to install.

     Note:  

     • If you install NV on an OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering server, the NV installation is launched. If you install NV on a host, both the NV for Controller and the NV for Load Generator installations are launched (one after the other).

     • If you install NV automatically, deactivate Windows SmartScreen before proceeding with the installation. To do this, open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer in the Registry Editor, and change the Value data for SmartScreenEnabled to "Off". You do not need to deactivate SmartScreen when installing NV manually.

     • If you upgrade host machines from 12.6x to 2023.x or later, and NV for Controller and NV for Load Generator co-exist on the same machine, you cannot modify setup configuration settings for a Custom mode installation.
       Resolution:

       1. Exit the wizard and uninstall the NV components.

       2. Reinstall the NV components by manually running the NV installation. See the installation section in the Network Virtualization.

9. Click Next to continue with the configuration.

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Configure servers and hosts

This section describes how to runt he Configuration wizard

1. Prerequisites.

   If you plan configuring the OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering server and IIS to work with a secure (SSL) connection, we recommend making sure that a server certificate has been imported and a corresponding HTTPS binding is created for the site before running the Configuration Wizard.

   Note: For increased security, we recommend changing the default IIS landing page so that it redirect users to a different realm, such as the secure portal.

   1. Go to the IIS root folder (usually C:\inetpub\wwwroot), and make a copy of the iisstart.htm file.

   2. Open iisstart.htm, running notepad as administrator, and locate the following section:

      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />

   3. Change it to the following:

      <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=THE REALM YOU WANT TO REDIRECT TO" />

      Example: <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=https://[your site url]/LRE/" />

2. After completing the installation, click Next. The Welcome page of the Configuration wizard opens.

   Click Next to start the configuration process.

3. Create the service user (server only).

   The installation requires a system for use by the OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering server, hosts and the Load Generator standalone machines.

   1. In the Service User page, specify a user to run the service.

      • If you select Use Default Credentials, the OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering system user, IUSR_METRO, is configured and added to the machine's Administrators group.

      • To define your own system user for the installation environment, clear the Use Default Credentials check box, and enter the domain, user, and password. Enter credentials using one of the following formats: domain\username or username@domain.

      Note:

      • You can use a local or a domain user. When using a local user, if the user does not exist on the server machine, the installer creates it.

      • When using a local user, if the user name does not exist or is not in the Administrators group, it is added to the Administrators group.

      • When using a domain user, make sure that the domain user is a member of the Administrators group.

      • A user name cannot include the following characters: [ ] : | < + > = ; , ? * @

      • The system user's password should be based on ASCII characters only and cannot include the following characters: < > | & " ^ or space.

      • You must have a domain user set in the Configuration wizard when setting the repository path to a network location.

      • The Service user you set here must have permissions for the file repository (see Configure the repository).

      • After adding the server to the project, the user is saved to that database. Each subsequent server or host that is added, is configured with that user.

      • After adding a server, you can use the System Identity utility to change the user. For details, see the Change the system user.

      • After creating the system user and configuring the server, the Service User page is not displayed the next time you launch the Configuration wizard.

   2. Click Next.

4. Configure the repository.

   1. In the Repository page, click the Browse button, or enter the path of the new repository.

      Note:  

      • Make sure that you select a path where you have full read and write permissions.

      • The user account that was set in the Service User page must have permissions for the file repository (see Create the LRE Service User).

      • The file repository is supported with Azure Files Share using a UNC path (not a mapped drive).

      • To work with cluster nodes, make sure that all nodes have access to the file repository path, and that the path is UNC. All nodes in the cluster must have the same string for the repository path.

      • The maximum length of the file repository path is 200 characters.

      • The file repository path cannot reside on the root folder, and it cannot be on a mapped drive.

   2. Click Test Connection to check whether you can connect to the repository using the user credentials you provided.

   3. Click Next.

5. Configure the connection to the database server.

   1. In the DB Connection page, select the database type to be used in your system: Oracle, Microsoft SQL, or PostgreSQL (supported for on-premises versions only).

   2. If you select a Microsoft SQL Server, choose the authentication type:

      • MS-SQL (SQL Auth). Microsoft SQL authentication authenticates the user to the database using a database user name and password.

      • MS-SQL (Windows Auth). Microsoft SQL Windows authentication relies on the user being authenticated by the operating system.

   3. Configure the database administrator and user credentials.

      Field	Values
      Database Administrator Credentials	MS-SQL: SQL Authentication: Enter the name and password of an admin database user with "dbcreator" level permissions required to install OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering on the database server. Windows Authentication: Read-only field which displays the name and password of the domain user used for the OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering installation. Note: Windows Authentication mode is only supported if OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering is configured with a domain user. If it is configured with a local user, such as IUSR_METRO, only SQL Authentication is available. Oracle: Enter the name and password of the user with the administrative permissions required to install OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering on the database server. PostgreSQL: Enter the name and password of a PostgreSQL superuser with "Create Database" and "CreateRole" permissions, or a PostgreSQL non-superuser with the following permissions: Rolcanlogin = true, Rolcreatedb = true, Rolcreaterole = true, and Rolconnlimit = -1 on the database server.
      Database User Credentials	SQL Authentication: Enter the name and password of a user with "public" level permissions to be used by OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering to connect to the database after the installation is complete. Oracle: Set the default password for the new database users.

      Note: You can change the database administrator and user credentials at any time from the Database Password Changer utility. For details, see Change the database administrator and user passwords.

   4. In the Connection Details section, select one of the following options:

      • Connection string parameters. Select this option to enter database server information using the following fields.

        Field	Values
        Server Host	MS-SQL: Enter the database server name. For example, dbsrv01. Oracle: This field is read-only. PostgreSQL: The PostgreSQL server address. Note: Oracle, Microsoft SQL, and PostgreSQL database servers can be set with an IPv4 or IPv6 address. When using IPv6 address, you must use an IPv6 host name and not an FQDN
        Port	MS-SQL: Enter the database server port number, or accept the default port number. Oracle: This field is read-only. PostgreSQL: Enter the port on which the PostgreSQL server is listening, or leave empty to use the default port (5432).
        Net Service Name (Oracle only)	Enter the net service name found in the local tnsnames.ora file. Note: The Oracle net service name must be in the same case as it appears in the tnsnames.ora file.

      • Connection string. Select this option to manually edit the database server connection string, and provide the net service name from the local tnsnames.ora file.

        Note: The database name cannot be longer than 128 characters for a Microsoft SQL database, or 253 characters for an Oracle or PostgreSQL database.

   5. Click Test Connection to check whether you can connect to the database server using the user credentials you provided.

   6. Click Next.

6. Configure the database schema.

   1. In the DB Schema Configuration page, enter a schema name for the Site Management database, the Site Admin database, and the LAB database.

      Note: The Site Management schema is created regardless of whether you are using a single or multi-tenant system.

   2. If you are creating a PostgreSQL project, enter the password to be used when creating the new logins which are part of the database creation process.

   3. If you are creating an Oracle project, enter the following.

      Field	Values
      Tablespace	Select or enter the path to a storage location that has sufficient space to store the new project. You should not use UNDO as the storage location.
      Temporary Tablespace	Select or enter the path to a temporary storage location that has sufficient space to store the new project.

   4. Click Next.

7. Configure security settings.

   1. In the Security Settings page, enter one of the following:

      • For host machine installations, the public key. For details, see Public keys.

      • A confidential data passphrase to use for encrypting the information. The passphrase is case-sensitive, and must contain at least 12 alphanumeric characters. Ensure there are no empty spaces before or after the passphrase. Save the passphrase in a secure location for future usage.

      Note:  

      • After completing the server configuration wizard, you cannot change the confidential data encryption passphrase.

      • If you are installing on a cluster, you must use the same passphrase for all nodes.

      • Passwords for accessing external systems (databases and LDAP) are stored by OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering after encryption.

   2. Enter a secure communication passphrase that are used to encrypt the SSO token. Communication with other OpenText applications is enabled after authentication by a Single Sign-On (SSO) token.

      The passphrase must contain at least 12 alphanumeric characters only.

   3. Click Next.

8. Configure the OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering server and IIS for SSL.

   When configuring a server, you can choose whether to work with a non-secure (HTTP) or a secure (SSL) connection. When you use the SSL option during server installation, a self-signed SSL certificate is automatically generated on the local OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering machine and the IIS server. Alternatively, you can import a certificate from a certified authority (CA).

   Note: When using the server with a secure connection, make sure that you have configured IIS to use SSL on the server machine. You can also configure a secure connection post-installation. For details, see Configure servers and hosts to work with TLS/SSL.

   1. In the SSL Configuration page, select Configure SSL for OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering to use a secure connection.

      If you are using a non-secure (HTTP) connection, clear this option and click Next to proceed to the next step.

   2. From the Certificate store list, select the name of the provider that stores the certificate.

   3. Select the server-side certificate file that is to be used on the listening port during an SSL handshake. You can import a certificate, or use an existing certificate.

      Field	Values
      Import a certificate	To import a certificate from a certified authority, select the Import certificate check box, and choose a certificate file (it must be in .pfx format). Enter the password used to access the certificate file. Enter the host name and port of the OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering server used by the agent.
      Use existing certificate	To use an existing certificate, clear the Import certificate check box, and select a certificate from the Existing certificates list. Enter the host name and port of the OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering server used by the agent.

   4. Click Next.

9. Define the site administrator.

   Note: This step is not relevant (and the Administration User page is not displayed) if you are using a database that was already created. For example, when performing an upgrade.

   Enter a user name and password for a site administrator. These credentials are used to create a user to sign in to both Administration and the Site Management console for the first time. These are two separate users, and updating one does not have any effect on the other.

   After installation, you can change the site administrator or add other site administrators.

   1. In the Administration User page, enter a site administrator user name and password, and retype the password to confirm.

      Note:  

      • The user name cannot include the following characters: \ / : * ? " < > |

      • The system user's password should be based on ASCII characters only.

      • The password cannot be longer than 20 characters.

      • Keep a record of these credentials because you need them to initially access Administration, the Site Management console, and the System Identity Changer utility.

   2. Select a secret question for resetting the password and enter an answer.

   3. Click Next.

10. Configure the mail server.

    A mail server enables users to send emails to other users in a project.

    1. In the Mail Server Configuration page, select Configure Mail Server if you plan to use a mail server. Otherwise, click Next and proceed to the next step.

    2. Select which server to use and complete the SMTP account settings.

       Field	Values
       Address	The user's email address.
       Outgoing mail server (SMTP)	The SMTP server available on your local area network.
       Port	The port number used by the outgoing mail server. By default, port 25.
       Use the following type of encrypted connection	Choose whether to make your connection more secure. The following options are available: SSL and Start TLS. Note: SSL/TLS is currently not supported.
       Outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication	If your SMTP server requires authentication, select this option to provide credentials for authentication. Enter the user name and password.
       Send Test Email	Opens the Test Mail dialog box. Enter an email address and click Send. A message box confirms whether the mail was sent successfully.

    3. Click Next.

11. Check the configuration summary.

    The Summary page opens, and displays the configuration settings you selected. Review and confirm the details.

    To change any settings, click Edit in the relevant section to open the corresponding page in the wizard, and make the necessary changes.

12. Click Start Configuration to start the configuration. The background configuration starts. A progress bar indicates the progress of the configuration.

    Note: Make sure the Windows Services Manager is closed when running the configuration.

    The wizard performs the following configurations on the relevant component.

    Configuration	Server	Host
    Copies and updates configuration files	Yes	Yes
    Creates the system user For details on changing the system user, see Change the system user.	Yes	No. The user is created when adding a host to Administration.
    Configures DCOM objects	No. DCOM objects are configured when adding a server to Administration.	No. DCOM objects are configured when adding a host to Administration.
    Installs the following services: OpenText Performance Engineering Remote Management Agent OpenText Performance Engineering Alerts Service OpenText Performance Engineering Backend Service * OpenText Performance Engineering Configuration Service	Yes	* Yes, except for the Alerts and Backend, and Configuration services.
    Installs the following services: OpenText Performance Engineering Agent Service OpenText Performance Engineering Data Service OpenText Performance Engineering Load Testing Service	--	Yes
    Configures IIS: Creates virtual directories and application pools. Configures IIS application pools to work as 32-bit application pools. Sets the .NET version for the application pools to .NET 4 (v4.0.30319). Sets Integrated mode for the application pools. Sets read and write permissions for the Modules feature. Updates Mime type list. Updates IIS Feature Delegation. For IIS 10: Adds rules: IIS-ASP, IIS-ASPNET, IIS-ASPNET45, IIS-ManagementConsole, IIS-Metabase, IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility, IIS-StaticConten, IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic. Deactivates rules: IIS-URLAuthorization If the configuration is stuck in the "Updating IIS installation" stage (at about 40% progress) for more than 15 minutes, there might be a lock conflict if Windows Update is running in parallel. We recommend canceling and restarting the configuration.	Yes	--

13. On completion of the creation of the schema, the Finish page opens.

    1. Click the Open Configuration Log link to view the logs. The files are also available on the server or host machines in the configurationWizardLog_pcs.txt file in the <installdir>\orchidtmp\Configuration folder.

    2. Click the Copy Public Key button to copy the key to your clipboard. You can use this key when you install hosts and load generators (OneLGs). For details, see Public keys.

14. Click Finish to exit the Configuration wizard.

    Note:  

    • To prevent Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks on OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering servers, we recommend configuring Dynamic IP Restrictions for IIS. For details, see Using Dynamic IP Restrictions in the Microsoft IIS documentation.

    • After completing the configuration process, if the site is accessed from a public network, we recommend configuring IIS for accessing HTTPS protocols only. For details, see Configure IIS to work with TLS/SSL.

    • If you are using the TLS 1.2 protocol, we recommend deactivating the 3DES and RC4 ciphers on Windows servers by removing them from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
      Cryptography\Configuration\Local\SSL\00010002 registry. You can check the list of the ciphers on a machine by running the Get-TlsCipherSuite command in PowerShell.

15. After installation and configuration are complete, restart the virtual machine on which the server is installed.

16. Perform the additional post-installation configuration steps. For details, see Post-installation configuration steps.

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Public keys

The public key is part of the mechanism that provides authentication between an OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering server and the Remote Management Agent service running on a server or host, or on OneLGs. The public key is used for validating JWT tokens that were generated using a secret private key.

At the final step of the server configuration wizard, the screen shows the Copy Public Key button, allowing you to copy the public key to your clipboard. Save it locally in a secure location. You can then use the public key to configure the security settings for host machines and on-premises load generators (OPLGs).

For information about the actions requiring public keys, see Remote agent actions.

Retrieve a public key

If you did not save the public key at the end of the server installation, you can retrieve it at any time using an API call: Admin/rest/v1/configuration/getPublicKey. You can also create a new key pair using the generateKeyPair API call. For details, see the REST API references.

Add a public key for a host

To enter a public key for a host machine, perform one of the following:

• Run the Configuration wizard and enter the key in the Security Settings page.

• Define the environment variable LT_CRYPTO_PUBLIC_KEY on the host machine.

For a silent installation of an host, set the public key by specifying the public key value in the Userinput.xml file: <PublicKey>[public key value]</PublicKey>

Add a public key for an OPLG

To enter a public key for an OPLG, define an environment variable with the name LT_CRYPTO_PUBLIC_KEY using the value of the public key retrieved from the server.

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