"Couldn't contact the RemoteTestNG client" error when trying to run tests

Question

Issue

Working with TestNG on a maven managed project, i can't seem to run tests via the TestNG eclipse plugin. When trying to run tests, the following error message pops up (inside a dialog window):

Couldn't contact the RemoteTestNG client. Make sure you don't have an older version of testng.jar on your class path.

Reason:
Timeout while trying to contact RemoteTestNG.

How to resolve this?

Things I have tried

(After asking all my peers at the office QA department on this, and looking up information via the common search engines and on TestNG forums)

• Making sure I don't have an older version on my class path (naturally).
• Eliminating possible collisions between maven imported jars and jars used by the TestNG eclipse plugin (both are of version 6.7, and the project's pom.xml confirmed to use only its own dependent jar).
• Performing maven update and build after said changes.
• Running on a different JRE (specifically 1.7.0).

Relevant information

Environment:

• OS: Win XP pro SP3
• JRE: 1.6.0 update 31
• TestNG: 6.7
• Maven: 3.0.3
• IDE: Eclipse Juno Java EE SR1

pom.xml content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <artifactId>SGTest</artifactId>
    <name>SGTest</name>
    <description>Service Grid Test project for XAP</description>

    <parent>
        <groupId>com.my_product.quality.sgtest</groupId>
        <artifactId>SGTest-parent</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.0</version>
        <relativePath>http://mvn-srv:8081/artifactory/libs-snapshot-local/com/my_product/quality/sgtest/SGTest-parent/3.0.0/SGTest-parent-3.0.0.pom</relativePath>
    </parent>

    <properties>
        <xap.home>${env.XAP_LATEST}</xap.home>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.my_product</groupId>
            <artifactId>my_opensource_product</artifactId>
            <version>${gsVersion}</version>
            <scope>system</scope>
            <systemPath>${xap.home}/lib/required/my_opensource_product.jar</systemPath>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.my_product</groupId>
            <artifactId>gs-runtime</artifactId>
            <version>${gsVersion}</version>
            <scope>system</scope>
            <systemPath>${xap.home}/lib/required/gs-runtime.jar</systemPath>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.my_product.quality</groupId>
            <artifactId>DashboardReporter</artifactId>
            <version>0.0.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>${project.groupId}</groupId>
            <artifactId>apps</artifactId>
            <version>${project.version}</version>
            <type>pom</type>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.my_product.quality</groupId>
            <artifactId>webuitf</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.my_product.quality</groupId>
            <artifactId>wanem</artifactId>
            <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.my_opensource_product.xenserver</groupId>
            <artifactId>xenserver-machine-provisioning</artifactId>
            <version>2.0.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.swift.common</groupId>
            <artifactId>confluence-soap</artifactId>
            <version>0.5</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.testng</groupId>
            <artifactId>testng</artifactId>
            <version>6.7</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.ant</groupId>
            <artifactId>ant-jsch</artifactId>
            <version>1.8.3</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.thoughtworks.xstream</groupId>
            <artifactId>xstream</artifactId>
            <version>1.4.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
            <artifactId>mail</artifactId>
            <version>1.4.5</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.codehaus.groovy</groupId>
            <artifactId>groovy-all</artifactId>
            <version>1.8.6</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-vfs2</artifactId>
            <version>2.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hyperic</groupId>
            <artifactId>sigar</artifactId>
            <version>1.6.5</version>
            <scope>system</scope>
            <systemPath>${xap.home}/lib/platform/sigar/sigar.jar</systemPath>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-jms</artifactId>
            <version>3.1.1.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>hsqldb</groupId>
            <artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
            <version>1.8.0.10</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hamcrest</groupId>
            <artifactId>hamcrest-all</artifactId>
            <version>1.3</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <testSourceDirectory>src/main/java</testSourceDirectory>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.12.4</version>
                <configuration>
                    <classpathDependencyExcludes>
                        <classpathDependencyExcludes>com.my_product.quality.sgtest.apps.security:processor</classpathDependencyExcludes>
                        <classpathDependencyExcludes>com.my_product.quality.sgtest.apps.archives:customSecurityProcessor</classpathDependencyExcludes>
                        <classpathDependencyScopeExclude>runtime</classpathDependencyScopeExclude>
                    </classpathDependencyExcludes>
                    <argLine>-Xmx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m</argLine>
                    <includes>
                        <include>${includes}</include>
                    </includes>
                    <excludes>
                        <exclude>${excludes}</exclude>
                    </excludes>
                    <disableXmlReport>true</disableXmlReport>
                    <reportsDirectory>${sgtest.summary.dir}</reportsDirectory>
                    <reportFormat>xml</reportFormat>
                    <properties>
                        <property>
                            <name>configfailurepolicy</name>
                            <value>continue</value>
                        </property>
                        <property>
                            <name>suitename</name>
                            <value>${sgtest.suiteName}${sgtest.suiteId}</value>
                        </property>
                        <property>
                            <name>testname</name>
                            <value>${sgtest.suiteName}${sgtest.suiteId}</value>
                        </property>
                        <property>
                            <name>outputDir</name>
                            <value>${sgtest.summary.dir}</value>
                        </property>
                        <property>
                            <name>listener</name>
                            <value>framework.testng.SGTestNGListener,framework.testng.SGTestNgSuiteSplitter,framework.testng.report.TestNgReporterImpl</value>
                        </property>
                    </properties>
                    <systemProperties>
                        <sgtest.suiteId>${sgtest.suiteId}</sgtest.suiteId>
                        <sgtest.numOfSuites>${sgtest.numOfSuites}</sgtest.numOfSuites>
                        <selenium.browser>${selenium.browser}</selenium.browser>
                        <org.apache.commons.logging.Log>org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Jdk14Logger</org.apache.commons.logging.Log>
                        <com.gs.logging.level.config>true</com.gs.logging.level.config>
                        <java.util.logging.config.file>${basedir}/logging/sgtest_logging.properties</java.util.logging.config.file>
                        <sgtest.buildFolder>${sgtest.buildFolder}</sgtest.buildFolder>
                        <sgtest.url>http://192.168.9.121:8087/sgtest3.0-xap/</sgtest.url>
                        <sgtest.disconnect.machines>${sgtest.disconnect.machines}</sgtest.disconnect.machines>
                        <com.gs.work>${com.gs.work}</com.gs.work>
                        <com.gs.deploy>${com.gs.deploy}"</com.gs.deploy>
                        <cppOS>${cppOS}</cppOS>
                    </systemProperties>
                    <testFailureIgnore>true</testFailureIgnore>
                    <detail>true</detail>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3</version>
                <configuration>
                    <descriptors>
                        <descriptor>src/main/assembly/assembly.xml</descriptor>
                    </descriptors>
                    <appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>make-assembly</id> <!-- this is used for inheritance merges -->
                        <phase>package</phase> <!-- bind to the packaging phase -->
                        <goals>
                            <goal>single</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Answer 1

I was able to make the exact problem occur by configuring my TestNG launch configuration (within eclipse) incorrectly. Specifically I specified for it to pass the following as a JVM argument:

-runTestAsTool=true

instead of

-DrunTestAsTool=true

Adding the missing D fixed it for me. So maybe double-check how your launch configuration is configured.

Answer 2

This issue originates from a problem which occurs when running long Java classpaths on Windows (these exceed the process creation command limit). It had been reported on the Eclipse bug tracking system, and was also discussed here on Stackoverflow.

To work around this on Eclipse Juno releases, we can either bypass the command limit (using the solutions suggested in the above linked post), or apply the patch from the reported bug.

Ivan Sim posted the patching instructions on his coderwall, but I'll include an excerpt for the sake of completeness:

1. Download bug3271933.4.2hack.zip from the above link
2. Back up existing eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.jdt.launching_3.4.*.jar
3. Copy and paste classes in the patch to org/eclipse/jdt/internal/launching in your org.eclipse.jdt.launching JAR (replace existing files)
4. Edit the META-INF /MANIFEST.MF file in your org.eclipse.jdt.launching JAR file by removing everything starting from the first "NAME:" entry. Make sure you leave two (2) line break characters at the end of the file.
5. Re-start eclipse

Answer 3

Please make sure the Sock5 proxy on your Mac OS or Windows is turned off.