How to determine correct communication protocol your application is using to achieve successful recording in LoadRunner Vugen?

LoadRunner is tested based on the communication protocols and not on specific application. To record any application in LoadRunner, one needs to find the protocol that the client and server use for communication. Most application besides using the necessary TCP/IP protocol, also use an application level protocol (E.g.: HTTP, SNMP, etc.) Which run over the TCP/IP network protocol? If the application uses an application level protocol, then the corresponding Vuser type from Vugen can be selected to record the application. Sometimes the application uses combination of protocol, in Which case multiple protocols can be selected at the same time to do the recording. If the application just sends messages over TCP/IP without using any higher level protocol, then the option to use is Winsock protocol. Since Winsock does recording at the network (TCP/IP) level, it is less intuitive. You need to find out from the application developers who have developed the application itself, what is the protocol being used for communication between client and server.

So, tools which can be used to identify the communication protocol used by an application under test (AUT) are as follows:

1. Protocol Advisor available within LoadRunner Vugen

2. Use network sniffer e.g. Wireshark, Fiddler etc.

3. Record using WinSock protocol and analyse the send and receive buffers to identify the protocol used by an AUT