Installation considerations for DevOps Test Virtualization Control Panel
You can install IBM® DevOps Test Virtualization Control Panel (Test Virtualization Control Panel) as part of IBM DevOps Test Workbench (Test Workbench), IBM DevOps Test Virtualization (Test Virtualization), or IBM DevOps Test Performance Test Server (Test Performance Test Server).
Consider the following information before you install Test Virtualization Control Panel.
- Hardware and software requirements
- Networking considerations
- Security considerations
- Installation considerations for the HTTP/TCP proxy
- Security model planning
- Working with Test Virtualization Control Panel workspace
- Rolling back of Test Virtualization Control Panel
- Reusing the workspace
- Configuring the X-Frame-Options HTTP response header
Hardware and software requirements
For a complete list of system requirements, see System Requirements for DevOps Test Integrations and APIs 2024.09 (11.0.3).
For a list of hardware and software requirements for Test Virtualization Control Panel, you can also refer to the Software Product Compatibility Reports.
Networking considerations
Security considerations
Starting from version 9.1.1 onwards, when you install Test Virtualization Control Panel software, all communications with Test Virtualization Control Panel are secure and by default use HTTPS on port 5443. You can change the port number after installation and also enable plain HTTP as required. For details, see Configuring the server HTTP Endpoint.
For security considerations for installing the software in detail, see Security considerations for DevOps Test Virtualization Control Panel.
Installation considerations for the HTTP/TCP proxy
- Network segments.
- The proximity of the HTTP/TCP proxy to client and server applications because all traffic goes from client applications to the proxy and then to the server applications.
- Systems that use HTTPS are sometimes locked down to accept communications from a specific source only, which could force the location of the HTTP/TCP proxy to be the same as the client applications.
Before you uninstall the HTTP/TCP proxy, copy the registration.xml file (which contains the Test Virtualization Control Panel location, HTTPS set up, and forwarding rules) so that these values can be reapplied after upgrading the proxy to the latest version. After you install server, upgrade the existing Test Virtualization Control Panel JDBC driver installations by copying the new driver over the existing files.
Security model planning
Test Virtualization Control Panel has a simple security model. The features available within server depend on the security model chosen during installation.
The following table describes the security model options.
Security Model Option | Description |
---|---|
Active Directory | Test Virtualization Control Panel uses one or more
Active Directory servers to authenticate the user name and password provided by each
user. This process enables you to use your Windows domain user names to log in to Test Virtualization Control Panel. However, Test Virtualization Control Panel does not store or
maintain any user name and password information itself. For an Active Directory server, only the Security group type (groupType=-2147483643) is supported. To use other group types, you must treat the server as an LDAP server and set up the user and group filters to match the appropriate attributes. You must create two Active Directory groups:
Active Directory users must be put into these Active Directory groups and the names of these two groups must be specified in the fields provided on the Test Virtualization Control Panel Security Configuration screen in the Test Virtualization Control Panel installation program. |
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) | This option is similar to the Active Directory security model option but it
authenticates against a single LDAP server. However, the basic approach of having
two groups defined for user and administrators is the same. Even when you are using an LDAP URL as an Active Directory server, you must select "Active Directory" as the LDAP provider in the LDAP list box, and then, specify the host name or IP address and port number of the LDAP server to use. |
Test Virtualization Control Panel Built-in | User names and passwords are managed by the Test Virtualization Control Panel and each user must enter
a user name and password to log in. Thus, only authenticated users can control the
Test Virtualization environment. In addition, users who are identified as administrators can create other users. However, you must enter a user name and password for the first user, who will be created as an administrator. After Test Virtualization Control Panel is installed, you can log in as the administrator and create additional users. |
None | There is no user authentication. Users are not required to log in (by using a user name and password), which means that anyone who knows the Test Virtualization Control Panel URL can control, say, the Service Virtualization environment. |
Before installing Test Virtualization Control Panel, it is important to consider whether and how you want Test Virtualization Control Panel to authenticate users:
- To use either Active Directory or LDAP, you need the assistance of an Active Directory or LDAP administrator.
- If your organization does not have any Active Directory or LDAP servers or if you are unsure about the configuration details of any such servers in your organization, you can use the Test Virtualization Control Panel Built-in authentication-type.
Working with Test Virtualization Control Panel workspace
The workspace is the directory where Test Virtualization Control Panel stores its data (for example, published stubs), which is separate from the installation directory.
- db.mv stores data about domains, environments, scenarios, or stubs.
- sch_db.mv stores data about scheduled tests or Suites.
- kairosdb.mv stores data about metrics collated by the KairosDB.
The Test Virtualization Control Panel workspace contains numerous files that represent the overall configuration and the current state of Test Virtualization Control Panel along with data stored in the databases.
Rolling back of Test Virtualization Control Panel
Reusing the workspace
workingDirectory
key. For example: - On Windows,
workingDirectory=C:\IBM\RTCP-Workspace
- Non-Windows,
workingDirectory=/var/rtcp
- Stop Test Virtualization Control Panel. See Starting and stopping DevOps Test Virtualization Control Panel.
- Back up the Test Virtualization Control Panel workspace.
- If you want to retain or reuse the existing Test Virtualization Control Panel workspace, you are indicated by the installer that the data will be migrated. The time to install or upgrade depends on the amount of data that exists.
- If you do not want to use the existing workspace that contains data and select a
different location to install the workspace, the following are the results:
- An empty workspace is created.
- Data in the existing workspace is not migrated.
- Data in the existing workspace cannot be used with Test Virtualization Control Panel 10.2.3 or later versions.
After the upgrade or uninstallation, the contents of the workspace directory might change to work with the newer version of Test Virtualization Control Panel.
The uninstallation of Test Virtualization Control Panel version 8.5 and later specifies the location of the workspace directory. Make note of this directory. For versions earlier than 8.5, the uninstaller does not provide this information.
For more information about moving the Test Virtualization Control Panel workspace, see the technote.Configuring the X-Frame-Options HTTP response header
- Stop Test Virtualization Control Panel, if running.
- Go to C:\Program Files\IBM\DevOpsTestControlPanel\usr\servers\defaultServer\apps\RTCP.war\WEB-INF\classes.
- Open the
container.server.properties
file and add a property namedcontainer.xFrameOptions
. The value of this property is sent as the X-Frame-Options header value in the responses for web pages. For examplecontainer.xFrameOptions=SAMEORIGIN
. If you do not add the property or specify no value for it, no header is sent. - Save the changes.
- Restart Test Virtualization Control Panel.