Obtaining the Latest Release Notes
Contacting Compuware Customer Support
If you accessed this document from the product CD or from the program shortcuts on your desktop, you may not be reading the latest release notes. For the most recent information, go to FrontLine, Compuware's customer support Web site. The first time you access FrontLine, you are required to register and obtain a password. After logging onto FrontLine, select your product from the drop-down list and click Go. On the left side of the page, click the Documentation link. You will find the latest release notes listed with the other product documentation.
QALoad has the following minimum system requirements:
The system requirements for each individual QALoad component follow:
Microsoft
Visual C++ 6.0 Service Pack 4 or higher, Visual Studio .NET 2002 (7.0),
Visual Studio .NET 2003 (7.1), or Visual Studio .NET 2005 (8.0) for script
compilation and script validation.
Note: See the Technical Notes section
for more information about compiler compatibility.
cdo.dll must be installed on the
machine to use the send utility. CDO is an optional messaging component
of Microsoft Outlook. When you view the options for Office or Outlook
setup, CDO is listed under the options for Outlook. TCP/IP
communications
Note: The Server Analysis Agent must be installed on the same Workstation/Server
as the QALoad Player. It shares the same system requirements as
the Player workstation. The Server Analysis Agent is supported on Windows
platforms only.
The QALoad Player and associated utilities are supported on AIX, Linux, and Solaris. Compilers that are 32-bit compatible are required. The system requirements for each operating system follow:
AIX 5L Version 5.2 or 5.3
100 MB minimum available disk space
ANSI C compiler for compiling scripts. Compuware requires IBM’s VisualAge C and C++ compilers, version 6.0 (patched to level 6.0.0.14). Compuware also supports GNU GCC compiler version 3.4.4.
Java Runtime Environment 1.4 or 1.5 for playing back Java scripts
TCP/IP communications
Appropriate client application environment
Compuware requires the Linux system-provided GNU GCC version 3.4.5 compiler
Note: For Release 3 only, the system should be updated to the packages indicated in the Red Hat Advisory: RHBA-2005:661-11. Additional packages required to resolve dependencies also should be applied.
ANSI C compiler for compiling scripts and Sun Studio 11. Compuware also supports GNU GCC compiler version 3.4.4.
In addition, your Windows system may need to meet specific requirements to support the middleware you will be testing. The Winsock and NetLoad middlewares do not have any additional QALoad Windows Player requirements.
QALoad supports load testing of Oracle Net8/Net9 environments when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing of ODBC environments when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under Uniface when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under Citrix when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under SAP when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under ADO when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing under Oracle Forms Server when the following requirements are met:
Note: Compuware recommends you use the Java Client VM.
QALoad supports load testing of J2EE components when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports load testing of WWW environments when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports Streaming Media under WWW when the following requirements are met:
QALoad supports integration with ApplicationVantage version 10 Service Pack 2.
Integration with ApplicationVantage is supported on the Windows platform only.
QALoad supports integration with ServerVantage version 9.9 and 10.0.*
*For Performance Monitoring of Application Servers for WebSphere, WebLogic, SAP, WMI, and WebSphere MQ, you must install the ServerVantage agent that is packaged with the QALoad software. The agent should be installed on a non-production machine that does not currently have a ServerVantage agent installed.
The following options and environments will not be supported in QALoad release 05.06 and later:
Conversion of WWW scripts into C code (QALoad will only create Visual Navigator assets). Replay of WWW scripts in C code is supported through the next two releases.
Solaris 7
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x
Multi-port player execution
The following environments and commands can be used in QALoad Release 05.06, but will be deprecated and no longer supported in Release 05.07 and later:
ADO
Oracle 2-tier
QARun
Server Analysis Agent
Citrix Functions
|
CtxConnect |
CtxSetLoginInfo |
|
CtxSetICAFile |
CtxPing |
|
CtxSetApplication |
CtxSetPingTimeout |
OFS Functions
|
OracleAppsLogin( ) |
|
|
ofsHTTPSDoSSLHandshake |
|
QALoad has been enhanced to enable you to control how much automated processing is performed during test execution by choosing HTML mode or HTTP mode for script conversion. When going through the WWW convert for the first time, you are now prompted to choose between HTML mode and HTTP mode.
Typical HTML processing uses more processor cycles and memory during test execution, but requires less scripting. HTTP processing instructs QALoad to disable most of its automatic HTML handling engine during replay, and it also affects how the script is generated. The HTTP mode replaces Minimized Processor mode. Scripts converted before QALoad release 5.6 using Minimized Processor mode will replay in HTTP mode.
QALoad has been enhanced so that, in HTML convert mode, you can control the level of JavaScript execution used for convert and replay. You can select from Full, Limited, or None, which result in writing the command DO_SetJavaScriptLevel (level) to the script. In HTTP mode, only the Limited level of JavaScript is executed.
QALoad provides dynamically discovered Oracle Application Server (AS) remote extended counter categories for remote monitoring of Oracle 9i and Oracle 10g Application Server performance metrics. Each category provides counters and parameters that extend the monitoring of your Oracle AS system. The Oracle AS agent dynamically discovers all available counters and parameter values. The available categories and metrics vary by installation. The Oracle AS agent supports wild-carded parameters and resource blackouts.
Supported platforms for Oracle AS include:
|
|
Oracle AS requires the following files installed on the Conductor machine:
For Oracle AS 9i, you must store copies of the dms.jar, xmlparserv2.jar, ons.jar, http_client.jar, and jssl-1_2.jar files from the monitored Oracle AS server on the Conductor machine.
For Oracle AS 10g version 1 and version 2, you must store copies of the dms.jar, xmlparserv2.jar, ons.jar, and optic.jar files from the monitored Oracle AS server on the Conductor machine.
For Oracle AS 10g version 3, you must store copies of the dms.jar, dmsapp.jar, xmlparserv2.jar, ons.jar, and optic.jar files from the monitored Oracle AS server on the Conductor machine.
QALoad provides statically discovered categories for monitoring a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Each category provides counters that allow the monitoring of your JVM. QALoad utilizes the Java Monitoring and Management API which were introduced in J2SE 5.0 for counter data.
QALoad uses the JMX agent. To enable and configure the JMX agent, you must set certain system properties when you start the JVM. The following is an example of the system properties set for JVM monitoring without authentication:
Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=1090
Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false
Dcom.sun.management.jmsremote.authenticate=false
To turn on java authentication, set up the parameter Dcom.sun.management.jmsremote.authenticate as true.
For more information, go to http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/management/agent.html#properties
QALoad 5.6 provides limited support for using WWW and Winsock middlewares on the Microsoft Windows Vista platform. Limited support requires system administrator privileges and manual configuration steps to install and use the scripting, execution, and analysis capabilities of the product. Further support is scheduled for the subsequent release of QALoad and Vista-specific issues may be deferred to this release.
The use of ServerVantage Agent or ApplicationVantage Agent on the Microsoft Vista platform is not currently supported. To use these integrations, you must be running Conductor on a Windows 2000, XP, or Windows Server 2003.
If you are using QALoad on Microsoft Windows Vista, you must make the following configurations for proper operations of capturing in Winsock, performance monitoring, and Remote Monitoring for SNMP, Windows Registry:
When using the Winsock middleware with Internet Explorer 7.0 on Vista, the Enable Protected Mode setting must be disabled. This option is managed in IE7's Internet Options on the Security tab.
When using the WWW middleware with Internet Explorer 7.0 on Vista, the Enable Protected Mode setting must be disabled. This option is managed in IE7's Internet Options on the Security tab.
When using any monitoring capabilities, the logged in user must be a member of the Performance Monitoring Group.
When using SNMP monitoring, you must enable the following options:
Enable SNMP feature.
Enable the SNMP service.
Specify an appropriate community.
Assign access rights to SNMP.
Enable access to SNMP through the firewall.
To enable Windows Registry remote monitoring, you must start the Remote Registry service (defaults to manual startup in Vista).
QALoad now supports Internet Explorer 7.0. Compuware recommends that you turn off the IE 7 Anti-Phishing Filter to avoid inaccurate test results.
If you are using IE 7 to capture a secure site, you may be prompted with a browser window that indicates there is a problem with the website's security certificate. To prevent the security alerts from appearing in the future and make QALoad a trusted source, follow the steps below to import a QALoad Certificate Authority into IE:
IE 7 introduced methods for gathering additional information for ActiveX controls that are missing details and lack fully defined codepaths. IE now queries Microsoft's own ActiveX repository to look for additional detail as well as other sites based on information gathered from the control.
You should decide if these additional requests are desirable for your testing scenario in QALoad and create traffic filters to reflect your preferences. You may find your test results are more consistent if you add http://active.microsoft.com/ to the Blocked Traffic filter.
When you install QALoad on a Windows XP machine with Service Pack 2 applied, the Windows Firewall is automatically configured to include the QALoad Player agent as an allowed exception. This configuration is required for communication between the Conductor and Player machines during a load test.
If you are migrating from a previous version of QALoad, you must re-compile your existing scripts in the Script Development Workbench to use them in this release.
When load testing WWW scripts that use NTLM authorization, do not use the "Switch User" feature of Windows XP. Using this feature allows multiple user sessions to be active simultaneously, which can cause problems with script playback. If you need to use a different Windows profile, log off Windows and log on as a different user.
certdb.txt for OFS recordingFor the SSL support provided in this release, QALoad modifies
the client machine's JInitiator certdb.txt file to include
QALoad's CA certificate during the initial SSL recording process
for an Oracle Forms Server application. This certificate authority information
is internally validated by Oracle during the OFS-SSL session. If you want
to remove the QALoad CA certificate, delete the following text
from the certdb.txt file:
#qaload
-----BEGIN
CERTIFICATE-----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-----END
CERTIFICATE-----
#qaload
To use the SAP or Citrix middlewares, you must ensure that the VC++ MFC and Template Libraries option is selected when you install Visual C++. This option installs the headers, libraries, sources, and browser database for MFC and ATL, which are required for both the SAP and Citrix middlewares.
To prevent performance issues, Compuware recommends that you increase your system paging file size to a fixed size of:
QALoad JavaScript support requires that all form elements (for example, buttons and text fields) must be inside HTML forms in order to execute associated JavaScript. JavaScript that depends on time or date information may require the user to parameterize the script. QALoad's windowless replay does not support certain specific JavaScript functions listed below.
setTimeout
clearInterval
clearTimeout
setInterval
showHelp
showModalDialog
showModelessDialog
As of 5.5.1, modified Citrix scripts should not have waitpoints placed directly after BEGIN_TRANSACTION markers. For best use of system resources, Compuware recommends that you place DO_SetTransactionCleanup before the END_TRANSACTION marker.
The default SQL port, 1433, must be open on the ServerVantage database server so that QALoad can retrieve the counter data at the conclusion of the test.
In QALoad 5.6, three Citrix error codes have been added and two Citrix error codes have been modified.
New Citrix error codes are:
CTX_WARNING_00055 - The Citrix client has already disconnected, so the statement could not be executed.
CTX_ERROR_00058 - The Citrix client cannot send the key up to the specified window.
CTX_ERROR_00059 - The Citrix client was not connected, so the statement could not be executed.
Modified Citrix error codes are:
CTX_ERROR_00060 - the content has been changed to, "The Citrix client has already disconnected, so the statement could not be executed."
CTX_ERROR_00037 has been changed to CTX_ABORT_00037
This section describes known issues related to the current release of QALoad.
A known issue exists with the Microsoft Operating System that may cause new programs to appear behind other already open programs. When you start a program from another program, the new program window may appear behind all other open windows. Additionally, the new-window icon flashes on the taskbar. This symptom occurs on a Microsoft Windows 2000-based computer or on a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer. Microsoft has documented a procedure that details how users can modify the value of the ForegroundLockTimeout registry entry in Registry Editor to correct the issue. For specific instructions and more information on this issue, please refer to the following article located at the Microsoft Help and Support website for details: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;886217
If you are running McAfee's VirusScan 8.0 with the "Buffer Overflow Protection" option enabled, Internet Explorer may fail to launch when you start a Winsock recording or when you record OFS socket mode. To prevent this issue, disable the "Buffer Overflow Protection" feature within McAfee VirusScan.
If you are running your application on Windows XP SP2, Compuware recommends you turn off the 'pop-up blocker' feature before recording a transaction. The feature can be disabled using the browser window's Tools menu in Internet Options>Privacy.
The Send utility in Analyze does not always work properly with Outlook 2003. If you experience problems when clicking the Send button in the email that is generated by the utility, you can use the utility to create a .zip file of the results and manually attach that file to an email you create directly in Outlook.
Timing file names containing multi-byte characters do not display the file name correctly in Analyze tabs. The multi-byte characters are removed from the name and, if containing all multi-byte characters, the tab reads “TimingFile.tim”. Annotation Objects for Graphs do not support MBCS either, so some characters may be displayed incorrectly in annotation object text for languages utilizing MBCS.
If you are using the QALoad Conductor on a machine that has Microsoft Office 2000 or XP installed, when launching Conductor, you may be prompted repeatedly to insert a Microsoft Office installation CD. This problem is a known issue with Microsoft Office. It occurs during use with an account that is different from the account used during the Office installation when none of the Office components were launched since installation. To avoid receiving the prompts, launch any Microsoft Office component under the user account that was used during installation, and close it. For more information about this Microsoft Office issue, refer to the Microsoft knowledge base article Q298385.
QALoad supports load testing of Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Web applications that use Double Byte Character Sets (DBCS). Viewing timing files and Summary reports with International versions of Microsoft Windows is only possible if the timing file is viewed on the same Windows language platform on which the timing file was created.
When using the Server Analysis Agent to monitor the "Process->% Processor Time" counter on a multi-processor machine, values greater than 100% for any instance of the counter are reported as 100%. To ensure accurate results, Compuware recommends that you use Remote Monitoring or Top Processes Monitoring when monitoring any instance of the "Process->% Processor Time" counter.
A file descriptor limit exists on the Solaris platform if a script is running in threaded mode, logfile generation is turned on, and there are more than 250 virtual users. To avoid this limitation, modify the Logfile Generation parameters so that logfiles are not generated by all virtual users:
QALoad now supports the use of non-Administrator users on the Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional Edition platforms. Administrative rights are still required to install the software and appropriate user privileges are required for QALoad to write files to its own directory (which by default is in the Program Files directory). Administrative rights are also required when using middlewares that require the Capture Initialization Phase option. This requirement applies to middlewares other than WWW.
If you have uninstalled all previous versions of QALoad but the installation process indicates that a previous version of the product is still installed, you may need to remove a registry key. In the Windows Registry Editor, delete the following registry key if it exists on your system:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{90C9114B-ED44-4AB9-B32F-1B9EA363FBEF}
The Visual Navigator's Find/Replace functionality may not find and replace XML tree items.
The Checkpoint view may be blank when applying an existing saved template.
Subrequests in Old-Style WWW Scripts Invalid Characters in the Conductor Runtime Graphs on Japanese Operating System If you are running a Japanese Operating System, you may see invalid characters in the file names in the drop-down list on the Series tab of the Conductor Runtime Graph. There is no known resolution at this time. The improper interpretation of the characters involves a third-party tool that the software uses to display this information. Check FrontLine for future updates to resolve this issue.
There are limitations to the size of a Central Datapool that the QALoad Conductor can handle when starting a test. When attempting to use a Central Datapool file that is approximately 20MB or greater, the QALoad Conductor may fail to start. To avoid this problem, create a smaller Central Datapool file, or use a local Datapool for the test instead.
HTTP scripts fail to compile on AIX systems using GCC as the compiler after the QALoad SSL module is installed. You must manually install a different library for your scripts to compile properly.
When installing the SSL module, EasyScript for Secure WWW, on AIX using the package installation method, you must perform the following steps after the installation is complete:
Login to the AIX system as 'root'.
cd to /opt/QALoad/lib
Enter the following commands:
mv libqlHTTP.a orig.libqlHTTP.a
ln -s ./libqlHTTP128.a libqlHTTP.a
mv libg++qlHTTP.a orig.libg++qlHTTP.a
ln -s ./libg++qlHTTP128.a libg++qlHTTP.a
In Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2003 Server environments, if you experience problems with your applications crashing while capturing, perform the following steps:
Right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
Click the Advanced tab and select Settings in the Performance field.
Click the Data Execution Prevention tab. By default, it is set to guard system processes. To stop your application from crashing, click the second radio button Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select:
Add the link to your program's executable file (.exe) to the list of programs that are allowed.
Restart your machine.
QALoad may not capture WWW content correctly, or WebProxy may intermittently fail while capturing on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer. For example, you may receive the following Application Error while capturing WWW with Microsoft Internet Explorer, "The instruction at 0xzc8224b2 referenced memory at 0x00000001. The memory could not be read."
This can occur when the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration component is enabled, which is the default state in Internet Explorer on Windows Server 2003-based computers. This can prevent certain Web sites from displaying as expected in Internet Explorer. Programs that require the browser also may not work as expected because scripts, ActiveX controls, and download capabilities are disabled.
To avoid this behavior, use the following steps to remove the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration components in Windows Server 2003:
Click Start, then select Control Panel.
Double click Add or Remove Programs.
On the left side of the screen, select Add/Remove Windows Components.
In the Components list, clear the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration check box, then click Next.
Click Finish.
The Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration component configures security settings that define how you browse the Internet and your corporate intranet, and helps reduce exposure of your server to Web sites that could pose a security risk. For more information about this component, refer to Enhanced Security Configuration>Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration in the Internet Explorer help on your Windows Server 2003-based computer.
In the Visual Navigator, when you click a Page Node that has JavaScript content that causes the same page to reopen recursively, the QALoad Workbench may disappear. This also occurs when you open the same Web page in Microsoft Internet Explorer. The C++ script that is generated compiles and executes properly, but no modifications can be made on the page in Visual Navigator. To make modifications to the C++ script, use the following steps:
In the Workbench menu bar, select Visual Navigator>Create Editable Script File...
In the Save As dialog box, type a name for the script file, then click Save.
Edit the C++ script file.
The information in the online help topic Using HTML Mode, and the topic Using HTTP Mode, should be as follows:
In the topic Using HTML Mode, the first bullet in the section, "Use this mode if you are:", should read:
testing a web site that uses complex JavaScript with complex HTML pages that contains a significant number of links, tables or HTML objects
In the topic Using HTTP Mode, the first bullet in the section, "Use this mode if you are:", should read:
testing a web site that makes little use of Javascript and creates pages with few HTML options on them
Compuware Customer Support can assist you with all issues, from installation to troubleshooting.
Prior to contacting customer support, gather the following information:
800.538.7822
Refer to Compuware's FrontLine support web site for fast access to critical information about your product. You can read and print documentation, download product fixes, review frequently asked questions, or directly e-mail Compuware with questions or comments. The first time you access FrontLine, you are required to register and obtain a password.
Refer to Compuware's corporate web site at http://www.compuware.com/ for information about Compuware customer support policies and problem resolution process.
Customer Support
Compuware Corporation
One Campus Martius
Detroit, MI 48226-5099
End of QALoad Release Notes
(C) 2007 Compuware Corporation. All rights reserved. Unpublished rights
reserved under the Copyright Laws of the United States.