LoadRunner FAQs

What is LoadRunner?

LoadRunner works by creating virtual users who take the place of real users operating client software, such as sending requests using the HTTP protocol to IIS or Apache web servers. Requests from many virtual user clients are generated by Load Generators in order to create a load on various servers under test
These load generator agents are started and stopped by Mercury's Controller program. The Controller controls load test runs based on Scenarios invoking compiled Scripts and associated Run-time Settings.
Scripts are crafted using Mercury's "Virtual user script Generator" (named "V U Gen"), It generates C-language script code to be executed by virtual users by capturing network traffic between Internet application clients and servers.
With Java clients, VuGen captures calls by hooking within the client JVM. During runs, the status of each machine is monitored by the Controller.
At the end of each run, the Controller combines its monitoring logs with logs obtained from load generators, and makes them available to the "Analysis" program, which can then create run result reports and graphs for Microsoft Word, Crystal Reports, or an HTML webpage browser.

Each HTML report page generated by Analysis includes a link to results in a text file which Microsoft Excel can open to perform additional analysis.
Errors during each run are stored in a database file which can be read by Microsoft Access.

What are the components of LoadRunner?

The components of LoadRunner are The Virtual User Generator, Controller, and the Agent process, LoadRunner Analysis and Monitoring, LoadRunner Books Online. What Component of LoadRunner would you use to record a Script? - The Virtual User Generator (VuGen) component is used to record a script. It enables you to develop Vuser scripts for a variety of application types and communication protocols.

How do you debug a LoadRunner script?

VuGen contains two options to help debug Vuser scripts-the Run Step by Step command and breakpoints. The Debug settings in the Options dialog box allow us to determine the extent of the trace to be performed during scenario execution. The debug information is written to the Output window. We can manually set the message class within your script using the lr_set_debug_message function. This is useful if we want to receive debug information about a small section of the script only.

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