Installation considerations for HCL Quality Server

You can install HCL Quality Server as part of HCL OneTest™ Virtualization.

Consider the following information before you install HCL Quality Server.

Hardware and software requirements

For a complete list of system requirements, see System Requirements.

For a list of hardware and software requirements for HCL Quality Server, see the download document https://support.hcltechsw.com/csm?id=kb_article&sysparm_article=KB0078997.

Networking considerations

Note if HCL Quality Server will be running in an IPv4 or IPv6 networking environment. The server Networking installation option is used to declare an IPv4 or IPv6 addressing preference.
Note: The HCL Quality Server Networking installation option applies to Windows™ only.
Note: Accessing the HCL Quality Server web UI by using an IPv6 literal address is not supported.

Security considerations

Starting from version 9.1.1 onwards, when you install HCL Quality Server software, all communications with HCL Quality Server 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 HCL Quality Server.

Installation considerations for the HTTP/TCP proxy

Before you deploy the HTTP/TCP proxy, it is important to consider the following items:
  • 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 HCL Quality Server 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 HCL Quality Server JDBC driver installations by copying the new driver over the existing files.

Security model planning

HCL Quality Server 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 HCL Quality Server 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 HCL Quality Server. However, HCL Quality Server 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:

  • HCL Quality Server "normal" users who are allowed to log in to HCL Quality Server but have limited access.
  • HCL Quality Server administrators.

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 HCL Quality Server Security Configuration screen in the HCL Quality Server 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.

HCL Quality Server Built-in User names and passwords are managed by the HCL Quality Server and each user must enter a user name and password to log in. Thus, only authenticated users can control the HCL OneTest™ 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 HCL Quality Server 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 HCL Quality Server URL can control, say, the Service Virtualization environment.

Before installing HCL Quality Server, it is important to consider whether and how you want HCL Quality Server 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 HCL Quality Server Built-in authentication-type.

Reusing the workspace

Note: Starting from V9.2.1 onwards, when you roll back a HCL Quality Server version, the workspace cannot be reused and must be reinstalled.

Before you upgrade, or uninstall an older version to move to a newer version (when the upgrade is not applicable), back up the HCL Quality Server workspace. The workspace is the directory where HCL Quality Server stores its data (for example, published stubs), which is separate from the installation directory. After the upgrade or uninstallation, the contents of the workspace directory might change to work with the newer version of HCL Quality Server. Because Installation Manager supports rolling back the HCL Quality Server installation directory, but not the workspace directory, you must manually roll back the workspace while rolling back the installation.

To preserve your HCL Quality Server workspace (published stubs, user configuration, domains, and environments) when you uninstall the previous version, ensure that you do not select the option to remove the workspace. When you install the latest version, ensure that the workspace directory is set to the same location as your existing workspace.

To determine the workspace location, open the container.server.properties file that is available in HCL Quality Server installation directory\usr\servers\defaultServer\apps\RTCP.war\WEB-INF\classes directory. Look for the line that contains the workingDirectory key. For example:
  • On Windows, workingDirectory=C\:\\HCL®\\HQS-Workspace
  • Non-Windows, workingDirectory=/var/hqs
Note: If you delete the workspace during the uninstallation of HCL Quality Server (by selecting the Delete Workspace option) in the Installation Manager, all the published test reports are deleted as well.
Note: Starting from V9.2.1 onwards, the HCL Quality Server Environments page and the Agents page were replaced by dashboards. Those dashboards model stubs and scenarios differently and use new REST APIs, so existing test automation scripts that use the REST APIs before V9.2.1 will operate differently. Review the list of enhancements and download documents in the V9.2.1 release notes for information about other differences in HCL Quality Server in 9.2.1.

Configuring the X-Frame-Options HTTP response header

To help prevent possible clickjacking attacks, configure an X-Frame-Options HTTP header to be sent in the responses by doing the following steps:
  1. Stop HCL Quality Server, if running.
  2. Go to HCL Quality Server installation directory\usr\servers\defaultServer\apps\RTCP.war\WEB-INF\classes.
  3. Open the container.server.properties file and add a property named container.xFrameOptions. The value of this property is sent as the X-Frame-Options header value in the responses for web pages. For example container.xFrameOptions=SAMEORIGIN. If you do not add the property or specify no value for it, no header is sent.
  4. Open the oslc.server.properties file and add a property named oslc.xFrameOptions. The value of this property is sent as the X-Frame-Options header value in OSLC content responses. For example oslc.xFrameOptions=SAMEORIGIN. If you do not add the property or specify no value for it, no header is sent.
  5. Save the changes.
  6. Restart HCL Quality Server.