I would like to take my existing HP UFT QuickTest-Tests and run them using LoadRunner. I found a few articles on HP's website indicating that it might be possible to wrangle something but nothing officially supported. Does anyone have experience with this and are there any best practices to follow?
Graphical virtual Users (GUI VUSERS) have been supported since the very first release of LoadRunner. This is covered in every release of the documentation and was taught alongside API level virtual users through LoadRunner v6 classroom training. With the dominance of the skinny web the included training for GUI virtual users declined. Over the year the following GUI virtual user solutions have been available: - XRUNNER - WINRUNNER - QUICKTEST PROFESSIONAL
Pursuing a full GUI Virtual User Test a poor path to produce all of your load for several reasons:
Each virtual user will require a single operating system instance, either physical or virtual. This is an enormous waste of resources
API level, the same requests to the back end host as the full application but without the resource weight and cost of GUI were added in the second release of LoadRunner. You can run multiple of these per OS instance. They are more resource efficient, are indistinguishable from the full blown client when correctly constructed and are actually easier to build and maintain without the GUI Dependencies
It is a myth that you will take the same functional test, with all of the functional checks, and run the test unmodified under load. You will be picking specific business cases which run end to end, reproducing the behavior of your use population. If you are still checking whether the default state of a radio button is enabled or disabled on screen x coming from screen v, then you have not yet answered the question of whether the application works for one. An application which is not performant for one will not be performant for many.
If you wish to run the full GUI, the use of a Citrix or Remote Desktop virtual user is far more resource efficient.
GUI Virtual User licenses are orders of magnitude more expensive than API level virtual users. For a GUI Virtual user license for a 1000 user test you could hire a whole team of capable performance testers for a year and pay for an API level license for 1000 users.
Take the time, hire the right person who can actually build the API level tests successfully and you will wind up in a better place. If you must run the GUI virtual users to check for the cost of the GUI, then run one per business process included in your load model. Name the transactions appropriately, such as "Login" and "Login_GUI" which will then allow you to measure the difference between the two to determine the overhead of the client software in the presentation to the user.