HP Load Runner is the most popular tool from HP for performance, load and stress testing tasks. Using the LR, you can check different aspects of performance testing on a native system or a remote system.
However, remote networks are always behind a firewall. When a firewall is used, it blocks the commonly used port 80. So, the LR controller cannot establish a connection with LR agents on remote systems. However, you can use MI listener to communicate with remote LR agents over a secure HTTPS connection using port 443.
How it works?
LR agents are installed on all remote machines wherein Vusers on load generators are running. Mi Listener is an effective tool that acts as a router to facilitate communication between the controller and the agent. When the agent connects to the MI Listener, it identifies itself with a unique name. This information is stored with the MI Listener. The agent uses port 443 to securely communicate with the MI Listener. On the other hand, the controller uses port 50500 to communicate with the MI Listener.
How to create this setup?
To facilitate performance testing over a firewall, you have to configure three components
- Mi Listener
- LR Agent
- Controller
- First of all, you need to install two LR components namely Monitor over Firewall component and MI Listener component.
- Open your firewall settings and allow connection between the two machines.
- Open the MI Listener settings window
- Change the port settings so that port 443 is open for traffic
- Go to the system tray and stop the MI Listener from running.
- Open advanced settings of the Mi Listener from Start -> All Programs -> Load Runner
- There are two options. For the Check Client Certificate box, the default value is False. Change it to true so that the client has to provide secure SSL certificate so that the data is transferred on remote networks in a secure way.
- For the Private Key Password option, the default value is None. Set a password so that SSL authentication is securely processed.
- On the LR agent machine, go to the system tray and stop the LR agent
- Open the LR agent program by going to Start – > All programs – > Load Runner – Advanced
- On the Agent Configuration window, Check the Enable Firewall Agent box and click on settings.
- On the Over Firewall Settings window, You will find the following options:
| Field Name | Default Value | Required value |
| Mi Listener name | None | Enter the name or the IP address of the Mi Listener |
| Local Machine Key | None | A string identifier for the connection between the controller and the agent. ( The same name has to be entered for the Load Generator name field in the controller settings) |
| Connection Timeout (Seconds) | 20 sec | Enter the time the agent waits before connecting to the Mi Listener |
| Mi Listener username | None | Enter the username for the Mi Listener connection |
| Mi Listener Password | None | The password for the connection |
| Server Domain | None | You can leave this unchanged unless you use NT LAN Manager |
Connection Type TCP, HTTP
| TCP | Choose the connection you are using If you use HTTP connection, enter proxy details |
Save these settings and restart the LR agent.
- Open the controller settings by going to Start -> All programs -> Load Runner -> Applications.
- Choose Create a new scenario.
- Open the Load generators window and click on Generators
- Enter the name used for the Local machine key in the LR agent settings window.
- To get the load generator information, click on Details.
- Go to Firewall tab
- Enter the Mi Listener name ( The same name given for the MI listener in the MI Listener settings)
- For the firewall settings, there are two tabs
- Enable running Vusers over Firewall
- Enable Monitoring over Firewall
- Choose the appropriate option and save the settings and connect the load generator.
