Limitations of packet capture

You must be aware of certain limitations of packet capture.

Prerequisite

In the Library Manager, Application page, the Default Network Device field must be set to a physical interface.

Packet capture basics

Packet capture refers to the interception of a data packet as it travels across a network. Packet capture (as opposed to using an External Proxy Server) is an option when setting the Recording mode for the following transports:
  • TCP
  • FIX
  • HTTP
Packet capture requires specialized software:
  • On Windows™ systems, Network Packet Capture is not included in the HCL DevOps Test Integrations and APIs (Test Integrations and APIs) installation program. If you want to install the Network Packet Capture feature at the time of installation of Test Integrations and APIs, you must select the Network Packet Capture option.
    Note: If you want to enable the Network Packet Capture feature anytime after you install Test Integrations and APIs, you can use the Modify option in Installation Manager to modify the software package. If you are using the stand-alone Installer, you must uninstall and enable this feature during reinstallation..
  • On non-Windows systems, libpcap is typically installed by default. If necessary, you can download the latest package from http://www.tcpdump.org/.

If you choose Packet Capture as your Recording mode, Test Integrations and APIs calls the appropriate packet capture software automatically.

Limitations

Although packet capture is simpler than using an external proxy server, be aware of the following limitations:
  • Your system administrator might not allow the use of packet capture software due to security concerns with intercepting traffic.
  • On non-Windows systems, root permissions are required to access the network port in promiscuous mode, and thus to run packet capture.
  • Packet capture does not work with wireless network adapters. Make sure that the Default Network Device in Library Manager is set to a physical interface.
  • You can record only those messages that are sent from, or received by, the system running Test Integrations and APIs. You cannot record messages between remote systems.
  • Packet capture cannot access messages that are sent locally on a Windows™ system, because these messages go through the internal loopback connector. For more information about the internal loopback connector, see http://wiki.wireshark.org/CaptureSetup/Loopback.