The MI Listener is a component of HPE LoadRunner that allows the controller to securely communicate with machines across firewalls. The two main uses of this application are to connect to either load generators across a firewall or to a monitor over firewall machine.
The installation file for the MI Listener is located in the “Additional Components” folder of your HPE LoadRunner installation media. It is required to install the MI Listener on a standalone machine on the same side of the firewall as the controller. TCP incoming port 443 should be opened for the MI Listener machine. This will allow the MI Listener to listen for the controller to connect to it on that port.
Setting Up the Controller’s Network Profile for the MI Listener
To connect machines via the MI Listener, you need to tell HPE LoadRunner some information about the MI Listener machine.
- In the LoadRunner controller, go to “Tools” and then “Network Profile Manager”
- Click the “+” to add a new network profile
- Click the name that is generated to rename the profile
- With the new profile highlighted, select the “Connect via MI Listener” radio button (The default port is 50500 for the controller to connect to the MI Listener)
- Enter the MI Listener name or IP under the “Name” field
- Click “Apply” and then “OK” to finalize the network profile (This network profile will enable you to tell HPE LoadRunner if a machine needs to be reached via MI Listener)
Connecting to Load Generators
Before starting, ensure that TCP port 443 is open for the applicable load generators and that HPE LoadRunner software is installed.
- To connect a load generator to the MI Listener, you first need to open the HPE LoadRunner agent configuration settings
- Select the checkbox to “Enable Firewall Agent” and click the “Settings” button
- The MI Listener name is the machine name or IP that the MI Listener is installed on
- For local machine key, enter a unique name you will later use to identify the load generator in the controller (It does not have to be the same as the load generator machine name)
- Click “OK” to confirm the configuration settings and restart the HPE LoadRunner agent (Please note that HPE Performance Center has some additional naming requirements)
- Back in the controller, you can add the load generator as you would normally with the local machine key you set in the agent configuration settings
- Select the value in the “Network Profile” column corresponding to the machine you just added and a dropdown arrow will appear
- Select the MI Listener network profile you created from the dropdown list
- Click connect to verify that everything is working correctly
Setting up Monitor over Firewall
The monitor over firewall (MoF) software can be found in the “Additional Components” of the HPE LoadRunner installation media. The MoF software should be installed on a dedicated machine with no other HPE LoadRunner software.
- Once you have the MoF installed, open the monitor configuration settings
- From here, you can click the “+” to add a server to monitor
- Use either the server name or the IP to add the server
- Select the desired measurements from the list of available monitors for the server you wish to monitor
Connecting to a Monitor over Firewall
To connect an MoF machine, follow the same steps as above to set up the agent and add the machine as a load generator to the controller using the MI Listener network profile. Then, with the MoF machine highlighted, follow the steps below.
- Click the “Details…” button to bring up the load generator details
- Click the “Connection” tab on this screen
- On the Connection tab, check the “Enable Monitoring over Firewall” checkbox and click “OK”
- Once the MoF has been added successfully, you can add the monitors to the controller that were previously set up in the monitor configuration on the MoF machine
- Use the same server names or IPs that you initially used on the monitor configuration screen and continue setting up monitors as you normally would