OSX Load Tester 6 Beta Known Bugs and Workarounds
As a long time Apple/Mac user I’m gratified to see our OSX download numbers creep up to 20%! Unfortunately with fewer people using the OSX version the first couple of releases had less outside bug reports than the Windows version, so thanks to all of the OSX users who’ve taken the time to send in bug reports so I can fix the issues. We’re sorry to say that the OSX version is still official in beta; if you need to something critical, like run a very large test I’d resort to using a Windows emulator and running the Windows version.
There’s a new 6.6 Load Tester release for OSX in April 2016 which addresses many of the bug reports we’ve received. If you run into an issue PLEASE take the time to fill out a bug report.
VPN Support
The biggest limitation remaining in the OSX version is the lack of VPN support. At the office we use OpenVPN, but I’ve yet to take a look at what is causing the program to hang when a VPN is present. I haven’t tried with Apple’s VPN, but its presumed the same issue applies. If you can’t get your work done without a VPN please fill out a bug report and let me know which one you’re using.
Hostnames Can’t Have Spaces
On OSX apparently its legal for hostnames to have spaces in them, in the sense that the OS will continue to function. Unfortunately the low level networking code in the JVM can’t handle this and makes bad things happen. If you run into a situation where Load Tester won’t record or won’t start, please check and make sure your hostname doesn’t have a space in it.
You Must be an Admin User
Note that the program requires you to be an administrative user. This is because of the way networking works on OSX– you have to have this privilege in order to change the HTTP proxies Load Tester uses to display its internal reports and record. For a text editor or any other program for a casual user this would be a problem, but Load Tester is a testing tool for professional programmers and sysadmins, who presumably already have admin privileges or know how to get it.
Supported OS and Hardware
As you can imagine its near impossible for a small company to have access to a testing lab with every combination of OSX and Apple hardware in it. I’ve tested this release on Mavericks and Yosemite on 64-bit hardware going back 5 years, which presumably covers the vast majority of OSX users. The other situation that has not been tested and presumably doesn’t work is multi-homing, or having more than one active network device. The current code queries all available network devices and connects to the first one that is active. I’ve been unable to find anyone using OSX with two active network connections, so if you do please leave a comment.