Installation planning for HCL OneTest™ API Agent

Product offerings

Start the installation by specifying installation repositories for the respective offering in Installation Manager. The steps that are described in this topic apply to the installation of both HCL OneTest™ Virtualization and HCL OneTest™ API Agent.

Hardware and software requirements

For a list of hardware and software requirements for HCL OneTest™ API Agent, see System Requirements.

Review the license information

Before you install HCL OneTest™ API Agent, you must review the license information. You must know the license type that you have purchased to select the mode to install the agent. See Licenses for HCL OneTest Virtualization.

Installation planning

HCL OneTest™ API Agent employs a decoupled, plug-in architecture to provide maximum flexibility for the messaging transport software that you are testing. This architecture also allows the application to load and execute additional components, such as functions, at run time.

The program code for each transport is contained in one or more JAR files that must reside in the HCL OneTest™ API Agent plug-ins directory. You can make the libraries on which the transports depend available to the application by using Library Manager. (For information about using Library Manager, see Working with Library Manager.) At run time, HCL OneTest™ API Agent loads each available plug-in, making these available from the appropriate menus.

Functions are loaded dynamically as well on a per-project basis. At the root of each project is a folder named classes that contains one or more JAR or CLASS files. The files that conform to the functions interface are made available from within the function action in test sequences.

Note the following network connectivity and deployment requirements:

• Each computer that runs a test engine instance must have an agent on it to manage these processes, launching the processes when required and shutting them down at the end.
• Each computer that runs an agent must be able to connect to the database.

Library Manager settings

Library Manager settings are preserved during the uninstall or reinstall process. After the installation of HCL OneTest™ API 8.7 or later, run Library Manager at the end of the process and confirm that the settings are correct.

After installation, you must configure the Agent.config file (for example, for HCL® Quality Server and IBM® Rational® Quality Manager settings). Copy this file before uninstalling so that you can copy over the values.

Preserving the configuration file

Upgrading the HCL OneTest™ API Agent software or uninstalling an older version to move to a newer version (when the upgrade is not applicable) overwrites the existing Agent.config file. If there are settings in the Agent.config file that must be preserved, for example, HCL® Quality Server domains and environments settings, copy the existing Agent.config file to a temporary location before upgrading. After the upgrade or uninstallation of the software has completed, overwrite the new Agent.config file with the old Agent.config file.