HP LoadRunner and PerformanceCenter differences

Question

Hi,

Can someone point out the major differences between Loadrunner and Performance center ? My little research shows that both can be used for load testing and performance monitoring. What additional features are provided by Performance center? Is VUGen a part of Performance center?

Please share your thoughts.

Answer 1

HP's Performance Center:

Lowers the cost of distributed load testing

Scales from single projects to a full-scale testing Center of Excellence (CoEs) that consolidates hardware, standardizes best practices and leverages global testing resources

Reduces the risk of deploying systems that do not meet your performance requirements

Reduces hardware and software costs by accurately predicting system capacity

Quickly and accurately pinpoints the root cause of application performance problems

Products in Performance Center are: HP Diagnostics software HP LoadRunner software HP Performance Center Management Software

HP LoadRunner Organizations can prevent costly performance problems in production by detecting bottlenecks before a new system or upgrade is deployed using HP LoadRunner software.

http://www.shunra.com/shunrablog/index.php/2009/03/ve-desktop-for-hp-software-50-versus-loadrunner-mwe/

Answer 2

As indicated by the previous post LoadRunner is performance and load testing. Performance center (which includes LoadRunner) is supposed to be a complete performance management solution. Performance center is HORIFICALLY expensive and from what I can see a number of the so-called features simply address some of the licensing restrictions in LoadRunner. It also appears that not a lot of organisations use Performance Center so HP don't have much expertise. If you just want performance and load testing without all the hassles then Borland SilkPerformer is a better option.

Answer 3

Let me try to give a little less sales-oriented and more technical slant (without the rant).

Performance Center runs multiple copies of LoadRunner.

Performance Center adds a web app to schedules time on the various LoadRunner machines. Allocating time also implies allocating the number of "vusers" that has been purchased.

For more technical information (including an architecture map and tips on using it), see my http://wilsonmar.com/lr%5Fperf%5Fcenter.htm

For more sales information, see Joe or a HP Software salesperson.