LoadRunner
Software testing tool
title: "LoadRunner" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["opentext", "load-testing-tools", "micro-focus-international"] description: "Software testing tool" topic_path: "general/opentext" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoadRunner" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Software testing tool ::
::data[format=table title="infobox software"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | LoadRunner |
| logo | HPE_LoadRunner_logo.png |
| developer | OpenText |
| latest release version | 2022 R2 |
| operating system | Microsoft Windows and Linux (Load Generator only) |
| language | Simplified Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese-Brazilian, Russian, Spanish. |
| language count | 11 |
| genre | Load testing tools |
| license | Proprietary |
| website | https://software.microfocus.com/en-us/software/loadrunner |
| :: |
| name = LoadRunner | logo = HPE_LoadRunner_logo.png | developer = OpenText | latest release version = 2022 R2 | operating system = Microsoft Windows and Linux (Load Generator only) | language = Simplified Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese-Brazilian, Russian, Spanish. | language count = 11 | genre = Load testing tools | license = Proprietary | website = https://software.microfocus.com/en-us/software/loadrunner
LoadRunner is a software testing tool from OpenText. It is used to test applications, measuring system behavior and performance under load.
LoadRunner can simulate millions of users concurrently using application software, recording and later analyzing the performance of key components of the application whilst under load.
LoadRunner simulates user activity by generating messages between application components or by simulating interactions with the user interface such as key presses or mouse movements. The messages and interactions to be generated are stored in scripts. LoadRunner can generate the scripts by recording them, such as logging HTTP requests between a client web browser and an application's web server.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise acquired LoadRunner as part of its acquisition of Mercury Interactive in November 2006. In Sept 2016, Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced it is selling its software business, including Mercury products, to Micro Focus. As of 01-Sept-2017, the acquisition was complete.
On Dec 12, 2019, Micro Focus announced newer names for LoadRunner package and started following CalVer.
- LoadRunner is now LoadRunner Professional 2020
- Performance Center is now LoadRunner Enterprise 2020
- StormRunner Load is now LoadRunner Cloud 2020
Architecture
The key components of LoadRunner are:
- Load Generator generates the load against the application by following scripts
- VuGen (Virtual User Generator) for generating and editing scripts
- Controller controls, launches and sequences instances of Load Generator - specifying which script to use, for how long etc. During runs the Controller receives real-time monitoring data and displays status.
- Agent process manages connection between Controller and Load Generator instances.
- Analysis assembles logs from various load generators and formats reports for visualization of run result data and monitoring data.
Modules are available to enable LoadRunner to capture, replay and script different application and networking technologies. These include support for:
- applications using Microsoft .NET and Java
- database servers such as Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle
- internetworking protocols such as DNS, FTP and LDAP
- e-mail protocols including IMAP, MAPI, POP3 & SMTP
- remote client technologies such as Citrix ICA and RDP.
LoadRunner can be run standalone or multiple instances can pooled for use by several people under the control of LoadRunner Enterprise, formerly known as HP PerformanceCenter.
History
::data[format=table]
| Version | Service Pack | Release date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | — | November 1993 | Load Testing for X Windows applications |
| 2.0 | — | July 1994 | Windows support added |
| XL & RTE | — | December 1994 | LoadRunner/XL (for large tests) and LoadRunner/RTE (RTE protocol support) introduced |
| 3.0 | — | April 1995 | Added SQL Inspector (captures SQL statements sent from client applications to relational databases) |
| 4.0 | — | May 1996 | Added Virtual User Generator, Controller, and Analysis tools |
| 5.0 | — | February 1997 | Added SAP R/3 support |
| 6.0 | — | July 1999 | Added Linux installation support |
| 6.5 | — | June 2000 | Added "TurboLoad" technology (i.e. Run users as threads) |
| 7.51 | — | June 2000 | Added Citrix ICA protocol support |
| 7.8 | — | September 2003 | |
| 7.8 | Feature Pack 1 | September 2003 | Added support for Windows XP. |
| 8.0 | — | August 2004 | Added "Additional Attributes" to Runtime Settings. |
| 8.1 | — | August 2004 | Added Web Click and Script technologies |
| 9.0 | — | August 2004 | Re-branded to HP LoadRunner |
| 9.10 | — | February 2008 | Added Web Services, Adobe AMF, and RDP |
| 9.51 | — | July 6, 2009 | |
| 9.52 | — | June 14, 2010 | |
| 11.0 | — | September 2010 | |
| 11.0 | Patch 1 | January 6, 2011 | |
| 11.0 | Patch 2 | February 22, 2011 | Added support for Visual Studio 2010 and Protocol Updates to Ajax TruClient, Citrix, Flex, Web. |
| 11.0 | Patch 3 | June 20, 2011 | Added support for IE9, Mobile protocols, GraniteDS. |
| 11.0 | Patch 4 | November 2011 | HP SV (Service Virtualization Integration) with Controller, GWT-DFE(Google Web Toolkit- Data Format Extension), RTMP Tunneled, Messaging support, Streaming support, Flex Correlations. |
| 11.50 | — | November 2011 | Added New VuGen IDE, Ajax TruClient for IE, Web Protocol Asynchronous Support, Flex, Mobile, .NET, Web Services, 64-bit applications recording, IPv6 support. |
| 11.50 | Patch 1 | July 20, 2012 | Added Ajax TruClient IE protocol. |
| 12.00 | — | March 18, 2014 | Added ability to instantiate instances on Amazon EC2 directly from LoadRunner UI. |
| 12.02 | — | January 21, 2015 | Added ability to instantiate instances on Microsoft Azure directly from LoadRunner UI |
| 12.50 | — | August 2015 | |
| 12.50 | Patch 3 | May 5, 2016 | |
| 12.53 | — | May 2016 | |
| 12.53 | Patch 1 | June 15, 2016 | Fixes a memory allocation issue that can impact Web HTTP/HTML protocols. |
| 12.53 | Patch 2 | August 3, 2016 | |
| 12.53 | Patch 3 | September 29, 2016 | |
| 12.53 | Patch 4 | January 4, 2017 | LoadRunner 12.53 Patch 4 contains various enhancements, and provides support for the following: |
| 12.55 | — | August 17, 2017 | Added MQTT Protocol, support for JMeter tests, support for Windows 10 creators, Windows Server 2016, and Ubuntu 16.04. Also added support for Chromium 55 for TruClient protocol. LoadRunner 12.55 supports HTTP/2 64-bit record and replay and many performance improvements and enhancements. |
| 12.56 | — | February 26, 2018 | LoadRunner 12.56 contains various enhancements, and provides support for the following: |
| 12.57 | — | May 19, 2018 | LoadRunner 12.57 contains various enhancements, and provides support for the following: |
| 12.60 | — | August 24, 2018 | LoadRunner 12.60 contains various enhancements, and provides support for the following: |
| 12.63 | — | May 28, 2019 | LoadRunner 12.63 contains various enhancements, and provides support for the following: |
| 2020 | — | December 17, 2019 | LoadRunner 2020 |
| 2020 Service Pack 1 | — | April 2, 2020 | LoadRunner 2020 Service Pack 1 |
| 2020 Service Pack 2 | — | July 1, 2020 | LoadRunner 2020 Service Pack 2 |
| 2020 Service Pack 3 | — | September 29, 2020 | LoadRunner 2020 Service Pack 3 |
| 2021 | — | January 12, 2021 | LoadRunner 2021 |
| 2021 R1 | R1 | April 29, 2021 | LoadRunner 2021 R1 |
| 2021 R2 | R2 | October, 2021 | |
| 2022 | February, 2022 | ||
| 2022 R1 | R1 | June, 2022 | |
| 2022 R2 | R2 | October, 2022 | |
| 2023 | March, 2023 | ||
| 2023R1 | R1 | July, 2023 | |
| 24.1 | 24.1 | Feb, 2024 | |
| :: |
Scripting Languages
LoadRunner client emulation scripts are usually created using the ANSI C programming language. However, Java and .Net programs can also be run by LoadRunner. Version 12.50 added the use of JavaScript for Web-HTTP/HTML scripts.
Scripts from other testing tools such as Apache JMeter, Gatling, NUnit, and Selenium can be run by LoadRunner by declaring an interface library. This enables scripts to send key-value pairs to the Controller as the script runs, enabling response times to be associated with specific conditions such as the number of items displayed in the User Interface.
LoadRunner scripts can also be called from within Jenkins.
Support for JMeter Tests
LoadRunner 12.55 enables testers to run Apache JMeter scripts from Controller, alongside Vuser scripts can view the results to LoadRunner measurements. This feature is provided as beta version.
References
References
- "LoadRunner architecture".
- "HP snaps up Mercury Interactive". CBS Interactive Inc..
- (25 July 2006). "HP To Acquire Mercury Interactive For $4.5 Billion". UBM Tech.
- "HPE selling software business to Micro Focus".
- "Micro Focus Completes Merger with HPE Software Business, Creating One of World's Largest Pure-play Software Companies {{!}} Micro Focus".
- (17 December 2019). "A New Beginning: Reflecting on 2019, Welcoming LoadRunner 2020{{!}} Micro Focus".
- (30 August 2012). "LoadRunner 11.50 Licensing Change and Protocol Bundles".
- "What's New in LoadRunner Enterprise".
- "C Vuser Scripts".
- "Java Vuser Protocol".
- "JMeter Tests".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::