Rational Test Virtualization Server overview

Rational® Test Virtualization Server is IBM® Rational software that is used for creating, maintaining, publishing, and running message-based stubs and database stubs.

Components

Rational Test Virtualization Server comprises several IBM Rational software components. The following table outlines how each of those components is used within Rational Test Virtualization Server.

Software component	Mandatory, optional, or conditional	Purpose
IBM Rational Integration Tester	Mandatory	This is the primary application for creating stubs. It can be regarded as the design-time environment for stubs. It can also be used for limited deployment of virtual services. It enables you to: Record events from the system. Create stubs in a variety of ways, including from recorded events, and then executing them. Create data models based on data in recorded messages for groups of stubs to use, facilitating the creation of richer virtual services.
IBM Rational Test Control Panel	Mandatory	This application enables you to manage virtual services, agents, and proxies within an environment. Typically, after a stub has been created, it will be published from Rational Integration Tester to Rational Test Control Panel. The stub is then stored in a repository on Rational Test Control Panel. From this repository, each virtual service can be configured, deployed, and managed.
IBM Rational Integration Tester Agent	Mandatory	Agents run stubs in the Rational Test Virtualization Server environment and are deployed on one or more computers within the environment. Agents act as hosts for virtual services, enabling them to be deployed to different locations across a network. They are registered with, receive instructions from, and report log data to, Rational Test Control Panel.
IBM Rational Integration Tester proxies	Conditional, depending on your testing requirements	Rational Integration Tester proxies are required if you want to record: Live HTTP(S)- or TCP-based messages and route those messages automatically to either the live system or to a stub without having to constantly change the configuration of any client or server applications. SQL events and/or stub databases that use JDBC connections. Rational Integration Tester proxies are registered with, receive instructions from, and report log data to, Rational Test Control Panel. Rational Integration Tester JDBC proxies are registered with, receive instructions from, and report log data to, Rational Test Control Panel.
IBM Rational Integration Tester Java™ Virtualization technologies	Conditional, depending on your testing requirements	The Rational Integration Tester Java virtualization agent and proxy enable you to intercept and record Java method calls. Consider using either or both of these technologies to virtualize services when middleware technology is unavailable or too expensive to acquire, or when other Rational Integration Tester virtualization capabilities do not support a particular middleware technology. Note: The Rational Integration Tester Java virtualization agent is available with IBM Rational Test Control Panel and it supports Java versions 6 and 7. Note: The Rational Integration Tester Java virtualization proxy is available with IBM Rational Test Control Panel and it supports Java versions 5, 6, and 7.

Note: Depending on whether Rational Test Virtualization Server users are recording, or stubbing (virtualizing), or both, the communications among all these components will be slightly different.

Virtualization capability

Rational Test Virtualization Server’s virtualization functionality is more granular than that of a Virtual Machine (VM) because Rational Test Virtualization Server can virtualize an application or database or just part of an application or database.

In contrast, Virtual Machines (VMs):

Are designed to virtualize an entire machine.
Require licenses for their applications and are usually not maintained by test teams.
Are less flexible for testing purposes, whereas a stub in Rational Test Virtualization Server can be manipulated easily to fit your testing purposes. For example, Rational Test Virtualization Server enables you to created stubs that can send erroneous data for negative testing of a system under test.

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