SilkPerformer^® SOA Edition 2008 Release Notes

This file contains important information that may not appear in SilkPerformer Online Help. Read this file in its entirety.

For information about installation, deployment, and licensing issues, including the evaluation version of SilkPerformer SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) Edition, see the SilkPerformer Installation Guide.

For an overview of the new features in the current release, see the What's New section below.

What's New

Following are the significant enhancements and changes that were made to SilkPerformer SOA Edition 2008.

Importing External Monitoring Data Into Silk Performance Explorer

SilkPerformer offers a command line tool (csv2tsd.exe) that enables you to convert CSV (Comma Separated Values) files into TSD (Time Series Data) files. This is useful when you are monitoring external Windows data that, for security reasons, can not be monitored by SilkPerformer. By converting CSV data to TSD format, external data can be analyzed alongside internal SilkPerformer monitoring data within Performance Explorer.

System Requirements

Each computer that is to be used in a load test must meet the minimum hardware and software requirements listed below.

Hardware Requirements

To install agent software, or both controller and agent software, and use the full potential of SilkPerformer SOA Edition to run heavy load-tests, your system must meet the following minimum requirements:

Load Testing

Recording, Monitoring, and Scripting

To use SilkPerformer SOA Edition functionality only for traffic recording purposes, monitoring and scripting, the following minimum system requirements are sufficient:

Software Requirements

To install and use SilkPerformer SOA Edition, your system requires a minimum set of software components.

Supported Operating Systems

• Windows Vista
• Windows 2003
• Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or higher recommended)
• Windows XP 64bit
• Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4)

SilkPerformer SOA Edition cannot be installed on computers running Windows 95, 98, or ME. Windows NT is not supported.

Other Required Software Components

The specific components that are required vary based on installation type. For example, to run SilkPerformer Java Explorer, your system must be equipped with a Java 2 SDK. All required components are included on the SilkPerformer SOA Edition Installation CD. Components can also be downloaded from their respective vendors' Web sites. See the SilkPerformer Installation Guide for full details.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 5.0.2919 or higher)
• Adobe Acrobat Reader (to view documentation)
• PowerPoint Viewer (to view documentation)
• .NET Runtime Environment
• Java Development Kit

Resolved Issues

The following are resolved defects in SilkPerformer SOA Edition 2008.

Known Issues

This section contains lists of known issues and provides workarounds where available:

Topics:

• General
• Performance Explorer
• TrueLog Explorer
• .NET Support
• Java Support
• Workbench
• Monitoring
• Recorder
• Licensing
• Setup
• SilkCentral Test Manager Integration
• SilkPerformer Source Code Control Integration

General:

Issue: Optical character recognition (OCR) does not work for multibyte characters. (38042)
Workaround: None.

Issue: The "What's This" Help does not work on Windows Vista. (30163)
Workaround: The Windows Help program WinHlp32.exe is no longer included with Windows Vista. A download for 32-bit .hlp files is available from the Microsoft Download Center. For more information, see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607

Performance Explorer:

Issue: Compiling a MIB file does not work. (32039)
Workaround: MIB files without an IMPORTS statement can not be compiled with Performance Explorer. Use the pre-compiled MIB files of Performance Explorer, or use MIB files with an IMPORTS statement.

Issue: When an overview report is saved as MHT, images do not display when viewing the report with Internet Explorer 7. (32927)
Workaround: View the report with Internet Explorer 6 or another browser.

Issue: JMX Monitoring does not work on Windows 2003 systems that have Terminal Server installed. (31679)
Workaround: None. The error has been reported to Eclipse; see bug #171413 on https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/ for more information.

Issue: When monitoring performance counters on Windows 2003 or Windows XP systems, the "Browse NT Performance Counters" dialog sometimes displays the wrong host. (30163)
Workaround: None. Since this is only a display error, you can still monitor performance counters on the target host.

Issue: When using "Absolute" start time in the workload definition, the Overview Report will display data from the moment the test was set up rather than when it was started. (4988)
Workaround: None.

TrueLog Explorer:

Issue: Oracle Forms TrueLog crashes after some transactions. (34040)
Workaround: De-select the "Applet execution" setting in Settings -> Options -> Display -> HTML rendering.

Issue: The rendered view of terminal emulation applications using non-ascii characters may display strange characters. (33416)
Workaround: Change the default GUI font of the Workbench (Settings -> System -> Layout -> Font & Colors) to a font that better supports your character set. Restart TrueLog Explorer after changing the font to apply the settings to TrueLog Explorer.

Issue: On-access virus scanner software may cause the TrueLog Explorer to crash. (32943)
Workaround: Turn off the on-access scan functionality of your virus scanner software, or open a TrueLog in TrueLog Explorer after the test run has finished.

Issue: TrueLog Explorer's Post Data and Form Data tabs may show incomplete form data if parameter types that require data type conversion (casting) are used for customization. (17060)
Workaround: It is recommended to use parameters of data type "string" only for form data customization.

Issue: TrueLog Explorer is unable to handle form submissions containing form fields with equal names.
Tooltips in the Post Data tab may show incorrect data, value customization may result in customizing a wrong form field. (16807)
Workaround: None.

Issue: TrueLog Explorer crashes if more than 65k characters are selected in the Rendered tab. (17775)
Workaround: None.

Issue: Visual Script Modifications fail if the related transaction is in an include file. (10367, 16239, 19992)
Workaround: Do not move transactions to bdh files.

Issue: When the JavaScript execution is enabled, certain JavaScript statements inside the HTML contained in a TrueLog may lead to unexpected behavior in the TrueLog Explorer. For example, the JavaScript may close or resize the rendered HTML view in TrueLog Explorer. (4181, 5624)
Workaround: Disable JavaScript execution (Settings / Options / Script execution).

Issue: Certain non-ASCII characters may cause problems when customizing a script with TrueLog Explorer. For example, the HTML token "€" is rendered to the Euro symbol, €. When selecting a text containing such non-ASCII characters and trying to insert a parsing or verification function, the TrueLog Explorer will respond with a message stating that the selected text is not contained in the visible part of the page's HTML code. (6482, 8085)
Workaround: If you encounter this behavior, try to exclude such non-ASCII characters from the selection, and try again.

Issue: TrueLog Explorer may crash if it is closed during an animated TryScript run, which may cause a memory access violation. This behavior only occurs with Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 5.00.3315.1000.
Workaround: Install a newer version of MS Internet Explorer.

Issue: Visual User Data Customization does not work for browser-level scripts.
This behavior is by design as TrueLog Explorer only considers forms submitted by WebPageSubmit calls (Page-based Browser-level API), because the HTML form names are required to match HTML and BDL forms.
Workaround: If you want to customize your script using TrueLog Explorer's Visual User Data Customization feature, you have to have a page-based browser-level API script.

Issue: Using the context menu (right mouse button) of the TrueLog Explorer you can view the Statistics reports of the TrueLog in the Web browser instead of in the TrueLog Explorer. However, the links in the Url column of the Page drill down section will not work in this case. This is by design, because the referenced HTML page is created on demand by the TrueLog Explorer. (7742)
Workaround: Use the TrueLog Explorer to view the Statistics pages if you want to navigate between the different statistics pages via the links.

.NET Support:

Issue: A .NET Framework project will not execute successfully if the two depending DLL's (perfdotnetfw.dll and dnlogging.dll) are not in the data file section of the project or not in the project directory. When creating a .NET Framework project – either with .NET Explorer or with Visual Studio .NET Project Wizard – these two files are copied to the project directory but are not added to the data file section. When exporting the project or uploading it to SilkCentral Performance Manager, these two files will be missing during executing and you will receive an error that a depending DLL could not be found. (25472)
Workaround: Add the two depending .NET Framework DLL's perfdotnetfw.dll and dnlogging.dll to the data file section of your project before you export or upload the project.

Issue: Accessing a WSDL file from a secure web site (https) might throw an error if the Web Service is hosted on IIS 6.0. The error message that will be displayed is “Could not establish trust relationship with remote server“. (24546)
Workaround: Download the WSDL file with your browser and save it to your file system. Then load the WSDL file from the stored file instead of the URL.

Issue: Running multiple instances of Visual Studio .NET with the SilkPerformer .NET Add-In might cause Visual Studio .NET (devenv.exe) to crash.
Workaround: Run only one instance of Visual Studio .NET

Issue: If additional .NET languages (C#, VB.NET, C++) are added to Visual Studio .NET, the SilkPerformer .NET Add-In Wizards do not work properly anymore.
Workaround: Re-install the SilkPerformer .NET Add-In.

Issue: When creating an Individual String random variable with SilkPerformer's Visual Studio .NET Add-In in a VB.NET Project, the generated RndInd declaration is not compilable and will also prevent the Add-In from creating further random variables.
Workaround: Replace backslashes ('\') with a quote (") in the generated RndInd declaration.

Issue: If SilkPerformer .NET Explorer calls a WebService method and passes parameters via call by reference, the generated .NET code misses the ref keyword in the function that calls the Web service method. (8173)
Workaround: Specify the ref keyword for the parameters that are passed by reference.

Issue: Random Variable Wizard in Visual Studio .NET can only be used for C# and VB.NET Projects.
Workaround: For Managed C++ applications, random variable definitions have to be coded manually by applying the random variable custom attributes to the virtual user class.

Issue: Outgoing parameters in .NET test driver methods do not return their parameter when called from BDL.
Workaround: Do not call .NET methods that use outgoing parameters from BDL.

Issue: The Web Settings dialog (Visual Studio .NET Add-On) - that allows to change the base class of web proxies in order to route the HTTP traffic over SilkPerformer's Web Engine - cannot be used for managed C++ projects. (12472)
Workaround: You have to change the base class of the web service proxy manually to "System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol" if you do not want to route the traffic, or to "SilkPerformer.SPSoapHttpClientProtocol" to route it over SilkPerformer's Web Engine in order to get a TrueLog for every Web Service call and to be able to use the features like Modem Simulation, IP Multiplexing, ...

Java Support:

Issue: Weblogic 8.x monitor does not work with JDK 1.5. (28863)
Workaround: Use JDK 1.4.

Issue: Axis 1.2.1 and Axis 1.3 treat some datatypes like String[] differently. While Axis 1.2.1 generates an ArrayOfString helper class, Axis 1.3 directly works with String[]. Thus, existing Java Explorer projects using these problematic datatypes cannot switch Axis version. (29343)
Workaround: Create a new project for each version.

Issue: Java Recording of IBM Java VM: "automatic" doesn't work.
Workaround: The startup script of the client application must be manually edited to allow recording.

Issue: Java Explorer: Loading jar files may take a long time. All jar files from the class path must be loaded and examined by Java Explorer at this time. This process cannot be interrupted. (11280)
Workaround: None.

Issue: Java Explorer: Adding a directory to the class path by double-clicking the directory within the file browser will add a wrong classpath. (11862)
Workaround: Click the directory once and use the "Open" button.

Issue: Java Explorer: A low invocation delay between method calls may cause an exception stack trace in the log file. The exception relates to the fact that the GUI cannot update as fast as needed. However, this doesn't cause any further problems. (12359)
Workaround: None.

Issue: Java Explorer: A standalone console application cannot be compiled when JDK 1.2.x is used as current runtime version. This issue is related to a JDK 1.2.x limitation. (12484)
Workaround: Use a JDK >= 1.3.x.

Issue: Due to a bug in the MS .NetFramework 1.0 some WebServices using custom SOAP headers cannot be tested with Java Explorer. (12209)
Workaround: Upgrade the server to .NetFramework 1.1.

Issue: Java Explorer does not recognize, if the project directory was changed in SilkPerformer GUI. If Java Explorer is opened with an invalid project directory setting, an exception occurs. (12070, 13006)
Workaround: None.

Issue: If JRE 1.5 Plugin for Internet Explorer is used, a java.security.AccessControlException may occur. E.g. the ProductManager sample reports an ´Exception in thread "Thread-5" java.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.lang.RuntimePermission modifyThread)
Reason: Security permissions have changed between JRE 1.4 and JRE 1.5. (17539)
Workaround: Add the following grants to the .java.policy file:

        grant { 

          permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "modifyThread"; 
          }; 
        grant { 
          permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "modifyThreadGroup"; 
          }; 

Note: The .java.policy file ususally can be found under: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\.java.policy

Workbench:

Issue: Generating the font database in the Citrix settings crashes the Workbench on Windows 2003. (37658)
Workaround: None.

Issue: Script modifications made with the Parameter Wizard or the SilkPerformer Unicode Text/HEX Editor cannot be undone using the Workbench Editor's Undo functionality. (15782, 15875)
Workaround: None.

Issue: After importing a project it may happen that baseline results are not recognized in the "Workflow - Calculate the Virtual Users" dialog, even if baseline results have been generated and accepted before importing the project. (14787)
Workaround: Re-compiling all scripts will resolve the issue. The "Workflow - Calculate the Virtual Users" dialog will then recognize the existing baseline results.

Issue: When mailing a project from SilkPerformer ("File / Email Project") with Lotus Notes, the "To" (recipient) field may be empty even if you supplied a valid e-mail address in the Email Project dialog. (5358)
Workaround: Either insert the e-mail address manually into the "To" field, or use another e-mail client. You can set your default e-mail client in the Internet Explorer options (Tools / Internet Options / Programs).

Issue: The Email Project functionality may not work due to configuration problems. (6490)
Situation 1:
There is no MAPI configured on the Windows system (no mapi32.dll is available in directory C:\WINNT\system32\). When clicking on the OK button of the EMail Project dialog the error message "Cannot open your email client, because MAPI32.dll couldn't be loaded. ..." occurs.
Situation 2:
Netscape Messenger is registered as mail program in the Internet Options dialog of the Internet Explorer, but Netscape Messenger is not configured correctly and is not your default mail client. When clicking on the OK button of the EMail Project dialog the error message "Your email address has not been specified. ..." occurs.
Workaround:
Situation 1:
Execute the fixmapi.exe application in the WINNT\system32 directory and try again. Then the Email Project functionality should work.
Situation 2:
Select the email client that you want to use for sending e-mails as defined in the Programs tab of the Internet Options dialog of the Internet Explorer. The Email Project functionality should then work.

Issue: When you start an automated load test using the command line interface and open a menu from the menu bar while the simulation is running, then SilkPerformer will crash at the end of the simulation unless you do close the menu before the simulation is finished. (2782)
Workaround: Do not open any menu from the menu bar, or if you do ensure you close it again before your load test is finished.

Issue: The System Configuration Manager is not able to correctly display the amount of memory of a machine with more than 4 GB RAM. (16882)
Workaround: None.

Monitoring:

Issue: Monitoring of perfmon counters does not work on Windows Vista. (34587)
Workaround: To monitor Vista's perfmon counters, the remote registry service must be running. On Vista this must be done manually (via Service Control Manager).

Recorder:

Issue: A faulty SQL statement may be generated in the recorded script if multibyte characters are involved. (36466, SF 00185435)
Workaround: Manually adjust the SQL statement in the script.

Issue: The Recorder is not able to record any traffic, though it may have previously worked.
Under certain circumstances the file PerfShk77.dll.install still exists in the directory \WINNT\System32, even though it should have been deleted. This file is temporarily copied into the directory and should be removed when you close the Recorder.
Workaround: Manually delete the file PerfShk77.dll.install from the directory \WINNT\System32. You may have to reboot the computer in order for this to take effect.

Licensing:

Issue: If you are running different versions of SilkPerformer on the same machine, they must use the same SilkMeter License Server.
Workaround: None. As designed.

Setup:

Issue: SilkPerformer Remote Setup will not work on a computer on which SilkPerformer is installed on a mapped drive. Since Remote Setup cannot detect the mapped drive, the checks for installed products will fail and a new SilkPerformer Installation will begin because an update was not allowed.
Workaround: None.

Issue: If the default project directory is changed, some SilkEssentials may not work due to broken links. (12955)
Workaround: Use the default project directory.

Issue: At the beginning of the Setup following error might occur: "Error -1607: Unable to install InstallShield Scripting Runtime".
Workaround: For more information please refer to
http://support.installshield.com/kb/view.asp?articleid=q107070
or
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b324906

SilkCentral Test Manager Integration:

Issue: Upload Project or Results to TM with insufficient permissions results in a "server returned 500" error. (22072)
Workaround: None.

Issue: If the IE option "Advanced Internet Options / Do not save encrypted pages to disk" is checked and you are using a secure connection (HTTPS), it is not possible to open the command file, downloaded through the links to "Open Project" and "Analyze Results". (21240)
Workaround: Uncheck this IE option.

Issue: If a project is opened via the "Open Project from TM" feature, the workload configured in TM is not taken over by the SilkPerformer workbench. Instead the default workload configured in the actual SilkPerformer project is taken. (21329)
Workaround: Use "Import Project" or "Run Attended" if you attend to execute the project.

Issue: Uploading a project to a wrong URL does not report an error. This occurs if e.g.: http://localhost:19120/upload is specified as upload URL instead of http://localhost:19120/project_upload
Workaround: Specify the correct upload URL.

Issue: If a SilkPerformer project is opened from SilkCentral TestManager the wrong workload may be active.
Workaround: Activate the correct workload via the SilkPerformer Workbench.

SilkPerformer Source Code Control Integration:

Issue: When adding a project (or single project files) to source control using StarTeam as source code control provider an informational message box may appear stating: "A server entry in your starteam-servers.xml file named <specified starteam host> does not exist.". The following sequence of upcoming message boxes and dialogs may be confusing.
Workaround: If the mentioned informational message box appears:

• Select "Yes" on the next message box prompting whether to select a different existing server, project, or view.
• Log on to the server you've specified to act as your StarTeam host on the following "Open Existing StarTeam Project" dialog.
• In the "Project" list, select the StarTeam project you've specified to put your files into.
• Click "OK" to close the dialog.

Issue: The option "Apply to all items" does not work if multiple files are involved in a Source Code operation. The user will be prompted for each of the files. (23118)
Workaround: None.

Issue: When SilkPerformer projects and/or files are linked to a defined SCC directory, and the directory is changed via the SCC client, SilkPerformer does not reconnect to the new directory.
Workaround: Remove the existing source control linkage and add the affected projects/files to the new directory.
Note: It is generally not recommended to use SCC client functionality for maintaining linked SilkPerformer projects.

Issue: MS VSS 8.0 introduced a security setting that, when activated, requests the user to enter their username and password each time they check in or check out a file from VSS. This request also appears in SilkPerformer when performing file operations with VSS.
Workaround: To disable MS VSS manual login:
1. Open SourceSafe Administrator.
2. Open the database where your SilkPerformer projects are saved.
3. Select the Options command from the Tools menu (Tools/Options).
4. Select the General tab.
5. Check the Use network name for automatic user login checkbox.

Note: This procedure only works if the username in VSS is identical to the network username.

Issue: Checking out a file followed by a immediate check in may cause an error caused by the Source Control provider that says that the file is currently not checked out. Despite the error message and the remaining "Checked-out" Source Control state of the file, the operation succeeded and the file was checked in. It will not be possible to check out this file again since Workbench assumes the file already to be checked out.
Workaround: Select the "Synchronize" command from menu "File / Source Control" after waiting for about 60 seconds. This will update the Source Control state of all the files of your project.

Tested Software

This section describes the software with which SilkPerformer 2008 was tested.

Java and .NET Licenses

SilkPerformer SOA Edition is available with the following two different license sets, which can be purchased separately or together:

• Java
• .NET

The Java license allows you to test the following remote components:

• Web Services (either on protocol level or using the Apache Axis SOAP stack)
• Enterprise Java Beans
• Java RMI Objects

The .NET license allows you to test the following remote components:

• Web Services (either on protocol level or using the Microsoft .NET SOAP stack)
• .NET server components
• (D)COM server components

Limitations

SilkPerformer SOA Edition is restricted in the following way:

• Support for testing HTTP(S)/XML (SOAP), Java and .NET interfaces only
• In-depth back-end server monitoring capabilities are available as Add-On

The following limitations of SilkPerformer CTE (predecessor of SilkPerformer SOA Edition) no longer apply if you upgrade to SilkPerformer SOA Edition:

• 5 simultaneous virtual users maximum
• Usage of a single CPU and agent machine only
• No base lining to automatically calculate timer thresholds
• Simple workflow only

Documentation Notes

As SilkPerformer SOA Edition is derived directly from SilkPerformer, the accompanying product documentation mainly refers to SilkPerformer. The Installation Guide, .NET, and Java documentation contain separate sections referring to SilkPerformer SOA Edition. All remaining documentation material may refer to product functionality that is only available in SilkPerformer, but not in SilkPerformer SOA Edition. Please see Product Limitations to find out the specific limitations of SilkPerformer SOA Edition, which are not present in SilkPerformer.

Getting Help

If you have questions about Borland products or want to contact Borland Technical Support, visit the Borland Technical Support Web site

Installation Instructions

For information about installation, deployment, and licensing issues (including the evaluation version of SilkPerformer SOA Edition), see the SilkPerformer Installation Guide.

SilkPerformer Results Repository: The SilkPerformer Results Repository has been deprecated. We recommend using SilkCentral Test Manager for storing and analyzing load test results. If you still wish to use the Results Repository, you can download it from the SilkPerformer Customer Downloads page. For further questions, please contact Borland's technical support.

Licensing Information

SilkPerformer 2008 needs a new 7.7 license. Due to the change to a more versatile licensing model, SilkPerformer licenses are no longer backward compatible. If you want to run Silkperformer version 2006 or older during the upgrade process to version 2008, you may keep your old licenses for a period of 90 days.