Release notes for IBM Rational Performance Test Server

Product description

Rational® Performance Test Server is an automated performance testing product that includes capabilities to create and run performance tests. See Rational Performance Test Server overview.

What's new

You can find information about the features introduced in this release of Rational® Performance Test Server and Rational® Integration Tester.

The following sections list the new features, enhancements, or other changes made in this release.

Documentation

You can now quickly add your comments to provide your feedback about the documentation for Rational® Integration Tester by posting to a product forum. To add your comments as feedback, you must first register at IBM Support. Your login information along with your comments are governed by the privacy policy of IBM. By commenting, you accept the terms of use of IBM.
Rational® Test Automation Server

For information about Rational® Test Automation Server, see Release notes.
Rational® Test Control Panel
- Tools page
  
  The list of agents changed for a release was updated. Review the Tools page of Rational® Test Control Panel to see each tool and the version that it was last changed.
- Changes to the creation of a default domain during the installation of Rational Test Control Panel
  
  Previously, when you installed Rational Test Control Panel by using IBM Installation Manager, a domain with the name Default was created, which was incorrect.
  
  Installation Manager now does not create the default domain when you install Rational® Test Control Panel.
  
  The server administrator of Rational® Test Control Panel can create and configure the required domains from the server interface.
Installation
- Support for enabling the Network Packet Capture feature during or after installation
  
  Previously, when you installed Rational® Integration Tester on Windows, the Network Packet Capture feature was automatically selected as a default option.
  
  Now, by default, the Network Packet Capture feature is not installed when you install Rational® Integration Tester on Windows.
  
  You can enable this feature either during installation or any time after installation by using the Modify option in Installation Manager.
Technologies
- New command options for specifying path and type of test assets
  
  Previously, if the path that you specified in the -run command was ambiguous and referenced multiple test assets, none of those assets were run.
  
  Now, with the introduction of the command options -runPath and -runType, you can use these options to run all the test assets of the specified type that are in the specified path in combination with or without the -run command option.
  
  See Run tests by using the command line.
- Adding of SWIFT Schemas
  
  Previously, you used the SWIFT schemas that were provided by Rational® Integration Tester and applied them to SWIFT messages.
  
  Now, you can use one of more versions of SWIFT schemas after you download the schemas from the SWIFT website to apply to SWIFT messages.
  
  See Adding SWIFT schemas.
- Enhanced support while adding a schema
  
  Rational® Integration Tester is enhanced to support a wider range of schema file extensions. When you want to add a schema from the Schema Library View without specifying the schema type, you now have the option to select the applicable schema if a file extension applies to multiple schemas.
  
  See Adding a schema.
- Recording Istio traffic by using Istio 1.6
  
  Istio service virtualization via Istio is now supported on Istio Service Mesh 1.6.
- Display of results in IBM® Rational® Quality Manager
  
  The performance of tests that are executed from IBM® Rational® Quality Manager is improved by the elimination of logging less important parts of the console output when the test is run. The entire console output can be viewed from the link in the results.
  
  Also, when you ran test suites previously that contained tests that ran in parallel, the results were not displayed correctly in IBM® Rational® Quality Manager. This problem is resolved.
- Support for use of certificates without CA
  
  The HTTP Proxy of Rational® Integration Tester no longer requires that the certificate used for signing as part of SSL termination carry the attribute basicConstraint ca=true.
  
  However, you must configure client applications appropriately to trust the generated certificates that do not set the CA as the basic constraint.
  
  Additionally, the proxy now directly utilizes any key pairs that exist in the store where the certificate lists the target endpoint in either the CN or SubjectAlternateName fields.
- Logging of stub metrics
  It is now possible to configure agent logging to provide metrics regarding stub execution performance. To do this, you must edit the agent-logging.properties file and add the following line:
```
com.ghc.ghTester.runtime.actions.StubStarterAction.level = FINE
```
  If you have previously modified the properties, ensure that the handlers to which engine messages are written can log FINE messages. By default, only a file handler is configured and has the following setting, which meets this requirement:
```
engine.java.util.logging.FileHandler.level = FINEST
```
  Note that it is not necessary to restart the agent for this configuration to be picked up, but it does not affect engines that are already running stubs.
  
  With this configuration in place, metrics are recorded in the engine log after each event is handled.
  
  See Logging of stub metrics.
- Display of the correct version when IBM® WebSphere® MQ exit starts
  
  The IBM® WebSphere® MQ exit for z/OS and the IBM CICS DPL exit now displays the latest version when it is started. The latest MQ exit version has the same functions as the previous exit. Therefore, you need not upgrade it to the latest exit version.

Deprecated capabilities

You can find information about the capabilities that are deprecated in this release and are planned for a removal in a future release.

Note: You can contact the IBM Support team if you have any concerns.

No capability is deprecated.

Removed capabilities

Support for the following operating systems or supported software that were announced in previous releases as deprecated are removed in this release:

No capability is removed.

Installing and upgrading

You can find information about the installation and upgrade instructions for Rational® Performance Test Server and Rational® Test Control Panel.

Installing Rational® Performance Test Server

For information about installation, see Installing Rational Performance Test Server.

Installing Rational® Test Control Panel

For information about installation, see Installation of Rational Test Control Panel.

Upgrading Rational® Performance Test Server

If you use Installation Manager, you can find the upgrade requirements in Upgrading Rational Integration Tester Agent.

Upgrading Rational® Test Control Panel

If you use Installation Manager, you can find the upgrade requirements in Rational Test Control Panel upgrade information and requirements.

Known issues

You can find information about the known issues identified in this release of Rational® Performance Test Server.

Table 1. Release documents - Fix list and known issues
Product	Download document	Knowledge base
Rational® Integration Tester	Release document	Knowledge articles

Known problems are documented in the download document for each product and in the form of individual technotes in the Support Knowledge Base:

The knowledge base is continually updated as problems are discovered and resolved. By searching the knowledge base, you can quickly find workarounds or solutions to problems.

Contacting IBM Rational Software Support

For contact information and guidelines or reference materials that you might need when you require support, read the IBM Support Guide.
For personalized support that includes notifications of significant upgrades, subscribe to Product notification.
Before you contact IBM Rational Software Support, you must gather the background information that you might need to describe your problem. When you describe a problem to an IBM software support specialist, be as specific as possible and include all relevant background information so that the specialist can help you solve the problem efficiently. To save time, know the answers to these questions:
- What software versions were you running when the problem occurred?
- Do you have logs, traces, or messages that are related to the problem?
- Can you reproduce the problem? If so, what steps do you take to reproduce it?
- Is there a workaround for the problem? If so, be prepared to describe the workaround.