HP LoadRunner 11.52 – New Virtual Table Server (VTS)

HP has announced its newer version of its flagship tool HP LoadRunner 11.52. LoadRunner 11.52 has major changes in Virtual Table Server (VTS). In this blog post, we will see about the new features of Virtual Table Server of HP LoadRunner 11.52.

What is Virtual Table Server in HP LoadRunner?

Virtual Table Server is a tool that enables sharing of test data and parameters between LoadRunner Virtual Users (VUsers). Usually performance testers use parameterization in their scripts, but in Virtual Table Server it acts as centralized repository to store data which can be shared between VUsers during the test execution.

Below is the revamped design of new VTS.

Virtual Table Server Admin
Virtual Table Server Admin

Differences between old VTS and new VTS

  1. Old VTS was a windows based application. New VTS is a web based application. By default, it can been accessed using http://localhost:4000, since it is a web based, we can access it remotely and it support IE, Chrome, and Firefox browsers. It runs as windows service; during start up it will automatically starts. Basic authentication and https can be enabled to access remotely.
  2. Old VTS utilizes memory, sometime it might crash. But in new VTS, it is disk oriented using NoSQL data engine which enables high throughput.
  3. You need to include #include “vts2.h” statement and some manual work needs to be done like loading DLL file in each load generator machine. But in new VTS, no need to include the statement and loading DLL files.
  4. New VTS has been integrated to run logic where we can control the execution. Old VTS doesn’t have such integration.
  5. New VTS is now available for Linux Load generators as well.
  6. New VTS now supports Unicode.
  7. Data size also increased. HP has tested up to 10 million rows of data. Performance is consistent.
  8. Old VTS was not supported by HP. But HP fully supports VTS.

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How to install/upgrade new VTS?

  • Install HP LoadRunner 11.52 in all machines including load generators
  • Install VTS on a server machine
  • After installation, by default VTS can be accessed using 4000 port, which can be changed.
  • Navigate to http://localhost:4000
  • On the console UI, you can import your data using SQL query or by CSV file as shown below
Virtual Table Server - Import from database
Virtual Table Server – Import from database
  • Create a C language script as shown below:
int   rc = 0;
char  *VtsServer = "192.168.0.100";
int   nPort = 8888; 

PVCI2 pvci = 0; 

vuser_init()
{

    pvci = lrvtc_connect(VtsServer,nPort,VTOPT_KEEP_ALIVE);
    lr_log_message("pvci=%d\n", pvci);

    return 0;
}
  • In Action.c, add some code to retrieve one column from the server and remove from the server at the same time. You can run the action multiple iterations, and it will retrieve one:
    char * cname; //column name
    int ret;
    
    RetrieveMessage()
    {
        lr_start_transaction("retrieve_column");
        rc =  lrvtc_retrieve_messages1("cname",";");
        lr_log_message("lrvtc_retrieve_messages1 rc=%d\n", rc);
        lr_log_message("cname is %s", lr_eval_string("{cname}"));
        lr_end_transaction("retrieve_column", LR_AUTO);
    }
    
    Action()
    {
        RetrieveMessage();
        return 0;
    }
    • In vuser_end.c, add API call to close the VTS handle:
vuser_end()
{
    lrvtc_disconnect();    
    return 0;
}
  • You can test it in VuGen and then run it in Controller.
  • Turn on the API access port before you execute the script.
  • Like the old VTS, the new one uses 8888 as the port for API to access.
  • It is turned off by default, Navigate to the administrative UI to enable it.

Visit How to setup Virtual Table Server (VTS), download the previous VTS and document.

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Images Courtesy: HP

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12 thoughts on “HP LoadRunner 11.52 – New Virtual Table Server (VTS)”

  1. Hi Navin,
    that was a gud article but I like to know the whole fuctions in VTS.. could you please help me in this !!! thanks in advance…

    Reply
  2. Two QQ-
    1.How can we implement LDAP or DB authentication in VTS.
    2. I have two application to test. Both the application is having some duplicate data file, and want to import into VTS. Content of those files are different(might be). Withought changing the name of the data file how can I achieve it. It is possible if we can specify different location for different Application data table.

    Reply
      • I really did not understand here…Approved. really…
        Till now as far as my 2nd question – I got to resolve other way. Running multiple VTS service on same box on different port. But I did not like the approach i have achieved. Till looking if any straight way to change location for different..project/application.

        I am sure it would be possible putting the hand inside JQuery code…And was able to do it programatacally. But no clue yet for DB or LDAP Authentication.

        Reply
        • Approved text is to approve your comment in my website :). I need to experiment about LDAL and DB stuffs in LoadRunner. :) Could you please share how you were able to achieve. Thanks!

          Reply
  3. We are facing issue in using the VTS latest version. Our script first uploads data into VTS server and then later they retrive by quering.
    We are able to perform upload of data using vugen, however when we try to query a column/row data we are getting vtsCustom.h(31): Error: vtc_query_column: Server error – @ line {vtc_query_column(pvci, cQueryColumn, nRandNum, &cColData);}
    This was working well with the old version of VTS.
    To make this work for the new version we have updated PVCI to PVCI2 and stopped loading the vtclient.dll file. We haven’t used VTCERR in our script anywhere, hence didnt have chance to modify them. But when column query is called we believe this refers to VTCERR because of which we are getting the server error, how can we make sure that it refers to VRCERR2. Which file should be modified exactly to make this happen.

    Reply
  4. Q1: I’m trying to store external header file in VTS server and use for across all virtual users. Do I need to create separate VTS instance for header file.
    Q2: if we have two scripts using different test data files. I plan to import test data in single instance . Could we able to recycle of data within specific number of rows for script1 (1 to 10) and script2 (11-20)

    Reply

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