Introducing VirtServer

You use VirtServer to run virtual services in your network. It is an addition to ReadyAPI Virtualization that is used for creating, editing, and running virtualized services.

VirtServer is tightly integrated with ReadyAPI Virtualization, allowing you to run and manage virtual services created with ReadyAPI Virtualization and hosted on VirtServer. VirtServer runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, and headless machines .

• You can share virtual services with your teammates for testing.

• You can continue working on a virtual service locally on your computer while the virtual service is running on VirtServer. This frees you from running virtual services for testing.

• You can organize the process of creating and running tests better with VirtServer. Particularly useful for companies that test a variety of APIs or different versions of the same API.

To work with VirtServer, you need a ReadyAPI Virtualization Pro license. If you do not have one, kindly request it through our website. Additionally, you need the VirtServer license.

• Shares and manages virts remotely with VirtServer.

• Creates and shares virts with everyone who uses your API and database by combining ReadyAPI with VirtServer.

• Enables other teams to build powerful and flexible tests that use any services their applications depend on and simulate a variety of conditions against them. You can do this by sharing virtual services.

• Accelerates the work speed by providing virtual services to code and test against, without incurring any costs on their side or disruption on yours.

• Allows performance testers to use virtual services frees them from having to schedule time on the servers or build extensive environments for load simulations against the APIs their application relies on.

• Enables independent work with virts by downloading them from a remote VirtServer to your own local virts.

Installing and launching VirtServer on your network (typically a 24-hour server) is the first step. Then you create virtual services in ReadyAPI by defining operations and responses in the editor, by discovering operations from the recorded traffic, or in any other supported manner.

Once your virtual service is ready for testing, you deploy (that is, upload) it to VirtServer and start it there. You can run tests against this virtual service as you normally would do for other APIs:

If you do not have a virtual service, you can download it from VirtServer to your computer for editing, changing (for instance, adding a new operation), and then re-deploying your ReadyAPI back to VirtServer. See Editing Deployed Virtual Services.

You can control virtual services and VirtServers in the VirtServer panel of ReadyAPI:

Click the image to enlarge it.

Notes:

• You can use several VirtServers in your network. Each VirtServer requires a license.

• Each VirtServer can run one or multiple virtual services. Your VirtServer license controls the number of allowed concurrent virtual services.

• VirtServer uses the HTTPS protocol and port 9090 to exchange data with ReadyAPI. The port number is configurable.

• The VirtServer version should match the version of ReadyAPI. We recommend using the latest version of both, VirtServer and ReadyAPI ensure optimal alignment.

  To connect to VirtServer 3.1 and later using ReadyAPI, you need ReadyAPI 1.6 or later. Older versions won't connect because they use a now-deprecated authorization method.

  You cannot connect to VirtServer 3.0 and later by using ReadyAPI 2.8 or earlier if VirtServer’s compatibility mode is turned off. Update your ReadyAPI installation or turn the mode on.

• Virtual services on VirtServer can work through the HTTP or HTTPS protocol, raw TCP, JDBC, also communicates with JMS, and use any port that is not allocated by other processes running on the VirtServer computer.

• To connect to VirtServer, specify a user name and password to connect to VirtServer. You create a user when running VirtServer for the first time and add more users later.

Please refer to the VirtServer Tutorial.