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Using Two or More Load Generators with LoadRunner

LoadRunner is a suite of applications designed specifically for performance testing of computer systems.

Put at a very high level, LoadRunner is used to throw load (or Virtual Users in LoadRunner terms) at a system to check for performance counters such as throughput, CPU per transaction etc. LoadRunner supports a variety of different architectures including Web, ERP, CRM and more.

This article details the steps of how to set-up multiple load generators to work with your LoadRunner Controller environment.

There are several drivers for going with this approach:

  • Your load generator may actually sit on the same box as your Controller (design flaw)
  • Your load generator may be a low spec box which maxes out at X number of VUsers
  • You want load to hit the target from multiple machines to introduce threading.
  • etc
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Tech

Downloading the Latest Malwarebytes Definitions File for Offline Use

UPDATE 05/2015: See version 2 of the script where I have written it in PowerShell. This one is easier to understand and doesn’t require wget.exe. It will work on any machine with PowerShell v3 and greater.

Malwarebytes is no doubt one of the best anti-malware softwares available on the net – I have it as part of my default installation kit when I build/re-build a machine.

One of the annoying things about Malwarebytes though is the fact that they do not offer their definitions files to be downloaded manually.
(Well, technically they do, however this comes as a 6.5MB file which needs to be installed before being able to download the file (disadvantage for those on-the-go)… also, the file is not updated very often – once a week it seems – See here)

Why would one want to manually download the definitions file I hear you ask.

  • You have an infected machine with all sorts of bad things like remote key-loggers etc.
    You want to scan the machine with Malwarebytes but you do not have the latest definitions file… you obviously do not want to connect the machine to the internet in this state; who knows what could be transmitted to/fro the machine.
  • You are a PC support specialist and like to carry around the latest definition files for portable anti-virus/malware applications on your USB.
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FARTing the Easy Way – Find And Replace Text

Have you ever found your self in a situation where you’ve needed to replace text in multiple files quickly and efficiently?

I came across this conundrum on a monthly basis when I needed to change the contents of tens/hundreds of LoadRunner scripts and parameters to point from the name of the preceding month to the name of the current month.

I did a bit of searching online and found this handy little command line utility called FART – Find and Replace Text. Put simply, it searches a file for X string and replaces it with Y.

It is really easy to use and literally takes a few minutes to set-up:

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