PH32948: INCONSISTENT REPORTING OF 401 RESPONSE CODE IN HTTP PLAYBACK

Rational Service Tester for SOA Quality V10.1.3
Rational Performance Tester V10.1.3

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• For an HTTP playback that includes authentication (Basic, NTLM,
  Kerberos), the typical traffic flow is for RPT to send the
  request initially without the Authoritization request header.
  The server responds with a 401 response code that specifies the
  acceptable authentication (for example, WWW-Authenticate:
  Basic).  RPT then resends the request with the
  dynamically-generated Authorization request header
  (Authorization: Basic ...).  The server then accepts the request
  and returns a 200 response code.  This behavior mimics standard
  browser behavior.
  
  The defect is in the way RPT reports and logs this exchange.
  The Test Log only logs the second (re-sent) request with the
  Authorization header; there is no logging of the initial request
  with the 401 response code (FYI: the initial request is written
  to the CommonBaseEvents00.log if the Problem Determination log
  level is set to All).  In contrast, the statistics reporting of
  response codes only reports the 401 response code.  Thus, if one
  looks at the response codes for such a playback, there will be a
  400 response code reported but none will appear in the Test Log.
  This can cause confusion since the statistics reporting of the
  400 code doesn't distinguish this expected 401 from other
  potentially erroneous 400 response codes.
  
  The 400 response code in the statistics would typically not be
  noticed since RPT does not report the response codes in the
  pre-packaged reports.  You would need to customize a report to
  show the response codes.
  

Local fix

Problem summary

• ****************************************************************
  * USERS AFFECTED:                                              *
  * RPT Users                                                    *
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  * PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:                                         *
  * See error description                                        *
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  * RECOMMENDATION:                                              *
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Problem conclusion

• Fixed
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  PERF TESTER WIN

• Fixed component ID

  5724J9601

Applicable component levels

• RA02 PSY

     UP