New features in LoadRunner 9.5
HP has released LoadRunner 9.5 and it is now available for download [2.29GB iso file]. Below is the summary of new features introduced in it:
- LoadRunner noobs always struggle finding out the protocol behind a given application. It seems HP has noted the fact and have come out with a cool new feature called Protocol Advisor. It sits inside VUGen. Protocol Advisor helps you to determine an appropriate protocol for recording a Vuser script. The Protocol Advisor scans your application for elements of different protocols and displays a list of the detected protocols. These protocols can provide a starting point for finding the optimal protocol for your application.
- Now you have the facility to export the Test Result from VUGen scripts to HTML and open Quality Center defects directly from the report.
- HP Service Test is now fully integrated with LoadRunner. You simply need to buy a license for service test to use its capabilities. [for the uninitiated, HP Service Test automates the testing process for services (SOA). Read more about it in this document.
- LoadRunner 9.5 supports Windows Vista SP1. (LoadRunner 9.1 only supported generators while LR9.5 provides support for both generator as well as controller). To use LR9.5 on Vista, make sure that User Account Control (UAC) is enabled for users with User privileges.
- LoadRunner 9.5 provides support upto .NET Framework 3.5 version and supports .NET and Web Services protocols.
- LoadRunner is now integrated with a 3rd party software Shunra, to provide you access to WAN emulation. Read the complete list of features here.
- Now you can define a Post Collate Command inside the Controller that it will run directly after it collates the results of a scenario run.
- LR controller has a new utility called Host Security Manager utility that will allow you to create secure communication channels between the LoadRunner Controller and load generators.
- There is a new Analysis API that will allow you to create an analysis session from test results, analyze raw results of an Analysis session, and extract key session measurements for external use.
- LR analysis now supports SQL Server 2005.
- LoadRunner 9.5 no longer supports Windows 2000.
- LR 9.5 is compatible with Quality Center(QC) 9.2, 10.0 and QTP 9.5 and 10.0 versions.
What is memory leak, page fault and how they affect LoadRunner performance?
Continuing with our discussion on technical terms used in loadrunner, we will now see the meaning of memory leak and page fault and how they affect loadrunner performance .
What is memory leak?
A memory leak is a particular type of unintentional memory consumption by a computer program where the program fails to release memory when no longer needed. This condition is normally the result of a bug in a program that prevents it from freeing up memory that it no longer needs.This term has the potential to be confusing, since memory is not physically lost from the computer. Rather, memory is allocated to a program, and that program subsequently loses the ability to access it due to program logic flaws.
What is a page fault?
An interrupt that occurs when a program requests data that is not currently in real memory. The interrupt triggers the operating system to fetch the data from a virtual memory and load it into RAM.
An invalid page fault or page fault error occurs when the operating system cannot find the data in virtual memory. This usually happens when the virtual memory area, or the table that maps virtual addresses to real addresses, becomes corrupt.
Now the most important question comes up, how do they affect LoadRunner functioning?
As you might guess, memory leak, if left unattended and not corrected, could prove to be fatal. Memory leaks can be found out by running tests for long duration (say about an hour) and continuously checking memory usage.
Issues caused by memory leaks are essentially based on two variable for a standalone windows application 1) Frequency of usage 2) size of memory leak . If either one or both are very high it could cause the computer to come to a point when no memory is available for other applications causing it to crash. If it is a network based application then you will also have to consider network traffic . If each network transaction causes a memory leak , then a high volume of network transactions could also prove dangerous.
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