Contributor:  Zhi-Yuan Jing (Known as Jason), HP LoadRunner RnD

As part of the new version 11.52 of LoadRunner we have created a new virtual table server (VTS).

Today we will share with you what is VTS and how you can take advantage in this important feature.

For those who have never use VTS before, Virtual Table Server (VTS) is a tool that shares data and parameters between LoadRunner vusers.

Read the full blog to learn more about the "New Virtual Table Server (VTS) in LoadRunner 11.52"

LoadRunner scripts that use the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) don’t always replay smoothly.  My colleague Kert (Yang Luo) from the LoadRunner R&D team has collected some tips that will save you time and effort, and help you ensure that your RDP scripts run correctly.   Continue reading to learn more.

Last week at the StarEast Testing Conference in Orlando, FL we made some pretty big announcements.  We released new versions of our flagship quality and testing software products. We are calling the whole initiative “The new style of IT”.

This new way of thinking about IT is impacting LoadRunner as well. Keep reading to find out the highlights of LoadRunner 11.52 and why I am as excited about the launch as a kid getting a new toy.

Last week I attended a class about Mobile application testing and learned a great deal about what needs to be tested and how, specifically from a mobile application point of view. In a matter of minutes, we were able to find all sorts of bugs in the applications. Overall, it was a real fun and empowering experience.  

Is testing mobile applications the same as testing web applications? It seems like it is, but it is so NOT!

Today HP is launching a time limited, bundle incentivized, mobile performance testing promotion to help you get started with this most important initiative.

Read the blog to learn more about mobile application testing and the discounted HP Performance Validation Suite.

Did you know that once you’ve written a functional test using HP Unified Functional Testing, you can then use that test script as part of a load-testing scenario using HP LoadRunner?  Continue reading to find out how.

I know good training is often expensive and difficult to schedule.   It’s often incredibly hard to find either the time or the money to go to training.   You’re going to HP Discover, so why not get some quality training while you’re there!

At this year’s HP Discover in Las Vegas, we’re going to have a great half day mobile performance testing training focused on using HP LoadRunner and Shunra Network Virtualization.

I know you’ve been thinking about how to solve mobile performance issues, so here’s your chance to take control and learn how to solve the problem once and for all.  In this session, you will have a chance to learn from a top notch performance engineer, who will walk you through how to solve for the mobile challenges.

Tuesday, June 11  at HP Discover in Las Vegas, you can attend a half day training session titled “Mobile Performance Testing”.   The session will be hands on and will give you a chance to learn about how HP Loadrunner and Shunra, give you complete control over your mobile performance testing obstacles.

Registration:
The cost per training course is only $99.. This is a $400 savings off the normal fee.  This Vivit Advanced Training course can be added to your new or existing HP Discover conference registration account. 

Questions? Unable to attend HP Discover but would like to attend Vivit Advanced Training? Contact Laura Walker, Education Chair, Vivit Board of Directors. 

              OR            

Of course, if you happen to be interested in mobile app development, then you should check out the apps for mobile dev blog and HP Anywhere,   If you are a developer, then do check out the HP Anywhere developer community – the Developer Zone and download our IDE and start building your mobile apps now!

In the early days of the World Wide Web, web applications communicated using conversations that had a synchronous nature: the user interacts with an application that is presented in a web browser, the browser submits a request to the web server, the server sends a response, and the application in the browser is updated.

However, synchronous applications have a number of limitations. One limitation involves the inability of the client to reflect events occurring at the server. This could be critical if, for example, the application in question displays stock prices or sport results and must present the updated info at all times. The answer to these limitations is asynchronous communication, whereby responses from the server arrive periodically or as a reaction to server-side events.

Many of today’s applications combine synchronous (user-initiated) and asynchronous (application-initiated) modes of communication between the client and the server. Usually the two occur in parallel (e.g. a user is navigating within the bank’s site, while at the same time stock updates keep pouring in), which makes it hard to accurately emulate such applications using traditional Vuser scripts. 

Continue reading to learn how to use VuGen to create a script for asynchronous situations.

For all dear women: Happy International Women’s day!

Today is a special day for all women! It is the Women’s international day celebrated across the globe! It is YOUR day!

Guys, please take the time to acknowledge all women that are part of your life today!  This includes your wife, girlfriend, your co-workers, sisters and friends. I am sure they will appreciate the acknowledgement.

To celebrate the day I want you to “meet” a great performance engineer; who inspires other women that are currently working in this area or are planning to become a performance engineer.

I would like to introduce Megan Shelton. She has a deep passion for performance testing and performance management, and has been working as a Performance Engineer for 10 years.  

Different browsers can have a dramatic effect on a web application’s performance. In order to accurately test an application’s performance, it is important to emulate different browsers to understand how the application’s behavior and network utilization are affected. Continue reading to find out how different browsers can be emulated in network-level scripts, such as LoadRunner Web (HTTP/HTML).

Not doing mobile performance testing?  Don’t worry, you will…

Everyone seems to be asking about performance testing in relation to the new reality of mobile access to almost every publicly available application, so I’m picking up the gauntlet and answering the tough questions. Continue reading to find out what people mean when they talk about mobile performance testing, and some best practices.

I am sure we have some similarities as “techies”! And one of the similarities may be learning about new software. I love trying new solutions and the challenges of discovering how it works and learning how the solution can help.

I understand that trying a new solution can be tricky; I decided to write a blog to enhance your experience when trying HP LoadRunner. Keep reading to find out how to have the best load testing  experience ever.

The “introduction to performance testing” webinar was a big hit last week.  An attendee told us:

“This session is very useful for me to start my first new project”

This demonstrates how there are still many question in the market about the process around performance testing domain. 

We received excellent questions and want to share them with the community. We want not only share but get your input on them and continue the conversation.  If you have experience and want to add to this blog, or have additional questions, please feel free to join us in the questions!

Looking to talk about Performance Testing, performance engineering or performance application lifecycle? Well, you are in luck. We are beginning a series of Twitterchats, and we want you to join us.

Keep reading to find out how you can join the conversation.

• No registration is required to attend the Tweetchat sessions.
• To participate, follow the hashtag  #loadrunner
• Just mark your calendars for the following days:

     Wednesday of the 2nd and 4th week of the month at 12 pm CST.

• Log at TweetChat and join the conversation! Bring your challenges, your tips and your ideas!

What is the purpose behind randomizing values in a load test? What is the random sequence seed in LoadRunner/Performance Center? These are questions students often ask in LoadRunner and Performance Center training classes. I want to give you the answers to these questions today, (and you won’t have to sit through a lecture to get them).

Guest post by Sarah Roderus,

Vice President, Consulting Services

TCT Computing Group, Inc.

I am sure you receive tons of emails everyday giving you webinars to attend. Working here at HP is no different and sometimes it is hard to keep up with the “good ones”.

I want to make your life easier and give you the chance to collaborate with me!  New Year resolution is to bring you the best webinar information around Performance. Cool, huh?

We are now providing a continuous series of Webinars focused on Performance testing, Performance Engineering and Performance lifecycle - they all add value to your job.

My plan is to bring you the “HOT” topics, as well as great speakers and unique ideas from our community. And BTW, the HP Performance Testing is the largest community in the industry! I am proud to be part of this community.

Learn more!

I’ve been in so many conversations about mobile lately.  

It seems like everyone is looking at different aspects of mobile.   Mobile First, Mobile Testing, Mobile Only…. Mobile Monitoring, MEAP, Mobile ALM,..

It’s true.   Mobile is radically impacting the way we work and live, and it is impacting how we build, test and deliver solutions to our customers as well. 

From a mobile testing perspective, we’ve been working on solutions such as UFT Mobile (based on Perfecto Mobile) and Mobile Performance Testing with Shunra Network Virtualization as key enablers that will help you extend your ALM tools and effectively and efficiently test your mobile apps.   

Here's more info about mobile testing strategy....

TruClient is an innovative browser-based testing technology for performance, load and automation. TruClient supports simple Web as well as modern JavaScript-based applications. TruClient’s scripting engine is embedded within the browser, and behaves like a true browser client. It utilizes a unique, patented approach to object recognition, which makes it an extremely flexible and extensible solution for testing Web2.0 applications.

I am very pleased to bring this good news to you right before the Holidays! HP LoadRunner 11.51 is now available for download.

With this new HP LoadRunner version we bring a series of enhancements in the following areas:

• VuGen
• Ajax TruClient
• Correlations
• Administrator Right Restrictions
• Data Format Extension Enhancements (DFE) Support
• Additional Flex Enhancements support
• Enriched Citrix Support
• IPv6 Support
• Java over HTTP (JOH)
• Oracle NCA support
• Web HTTP/HTML Protocol Support
• Analysis
• And more…

Enclosed it is the read.me file with additional information on the enhancements.

The version 11.51 is available via hotfix site and HP Updates Tool.

To download the full HP LoadRunner 11.51 service pack click here.

To access the documents related to the 11.51 version click here.

Want to learn about a great new way to connect to Performance Center?    A way to be more productive, efficient and effective?....

You do?   Great.  

Then check out this quick tip about how to get the most of of "My PC".

I am pleased to announce that Results Positive, is now offering performance testing solution on demand in the cloud, powered by HP LoadRunner. The new solution, LoadRunner on Demand, provides options to test from a hour to a day, as well as managed services, scriting and consulting services.

Read the blog to learn more about the LoadRunner on Demand.

Last week, I shared a blog post about a number of exciting things  happening in the mobile space.   I was especially excited to share the news about the announcement about UFT Mobile and how it will help organizations take control of their mobile application testing challenges.  

I know you are focused on performance validation and the challenges of ensuring that applications perform effectively.    You always hope that the application is ready for performance testing (I know this isn't always the case  :-)     I'm sharing this here, because I'm sure you might be interested in learning about what's happening in the functional testing space.

Later this week, we have a great opportunity for you to learn more about both UFT Mobile and UFT 11.5.  On Wednesday, November 28, 10am PT / 1pm ET, Ronit Soen and myself are hosting a webinar to share more insight into these two exciting announcements.

Click here to register for the webinar

Of course, if you’re interested in learning more, check out UFT Mobile.

Moving an application from one location (for example in your existing data center) to another (your next generation data center, the cloud or a mobile environment) is challenging. One of the question we have to answer is "how well the application will perform over WAN?".

In this article, I'm sharing techniques I have used when I participated to the move of applications during HP's massive data center consolidation. Also, I'd love to hear how you are doing it!

Decisions, decisions, decisions…

Our life is full of decisions; especially when we are purchasing a new solution to improve our work.

That is how Mark Tomlinson kicked-off the "Survey of performance testing tools" Online Summit event.

I had the opportunity to sit in this Summit provided by the Software Test Professionals (STP) organization, over the last few days. The event was very unique because STP was able to bring 9 different vendors to present their "performance testing solutions".

Read, enjoy and share your experience!

This will be a unique opportunity for you to learn what is new on HP’ Software Portfolio launched at HP Discover 2012 in your town.

The HP Discover Performance Tour is your chance to hear directly from top customers about their key IT initiatives and how they met their challenges head on.  You’ll engage with industry-leading solutions, experts and your peers as you get started on your DevOps journey and experience how to drive consistent quality, faster deployment and improved performance from application to the cloud. 

Register and find out more here: www.hp.com/go/discoverperformancetour.

In my blog last week I spoke about our HP TruClient technology. Today I want to bring you the voice of our R&D. I have interviewed our TruClient master, Yaron Goldstein.

Yaron currently manages the R&D TruClient group and new technologies related to it. Yaron Goldstein has been managing R&D and software engineer’s teams for more than 15 years. In the past year and half he has lead the creation of TruClient for Internet Explorer! How exciting that could be?

Yaron’s responsibility with TruClient goes beyond HP LoadRunner product, currently HP TruClient technology is embedded in other HP products as HP Business Process Monitor (BPM) as part of HP Business Service Management and HP WebInspect. His agenda is to expand the utilization of TruClient in various other HP solutions.

See what he has to say!

How much do you know about the HP TruClient technology? Have you been leveraging TruClient for your performance testing lately?

In this blog, I would like have a conversation with you about HP TruClient technology. If you can answer the questions above would be good for me to learn more about you as well and how you are leveraging this technology.

Enjoy the reading and share your thoughts!

AGILITY is the buzz word and with that DevOps! Want to learn more about it and how to optimize the integration in between development and operations? 

Join us to learn how leading companies are rapidly incorporating DevOps practices and policies into their IT Operations — while measuring both business and technical success with HP’s IT Performance Suite and Executive Scorecard.

Because I am from Brazil, sometimes I tend to translate English phrases literally to Portuguese! When I first saw this phrase “getting your hands dirty”, I quickly thought about gardening! Gardening really gets your hands dirty. Well, I love gardening but not getting my hands that dirty.

Well, what does “getting your hands dirty” have to do with performance testing?

On Wednesday June 28th, Silvia Siqueira announced the General Availability (GA) release of HP LoadRunner 11.50 and HP Performance Center 11.50. With that announcement, comes the completion of:

• Over 1 year of planning
• 2 years of development over 35 iterations
• 1839 User stories developed and tested
• 3354 Quality Assurance tests
• 8445 Load Test executions
• 4542 Defects fixed

HP LoadRunner 11.50 and HP Performance Center 11.50 are now available!

As it was mentioned in the blog on June 11 - the HP LoadRunner and HP Performance Center were launched at HP Discover 2012 on June 5th.

Today, I am pleased to let you know that we have general availability for both products (see links to download the products in the full blog).