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Hardware Certification Test Suite 2.3 User's Guide

Chapter 1 Using the Hardware Certification Test Suite

The Hardware Certification Test Suite (HCTS) is composed of controller tests and system tests, utilities, and a browser-based user interface. This suite runs tests to certify various network, storage, and serial I/O controllers, as well as tests to certify systems. This suite also collects log files, determines test PASS/FAIL results, and generates a final test report.

All tests must pass in a single test run to be certified.

This document covers the following topics:

Before You Begin

Before you begin running the HCTS application, you must complete certain actions:

Caution – Caution –

Installing HCTS on your test system creates a security issue. During the installation process, the installation script executes an xhost + command that opens up access to your system. HCTS should only be installed on a non-production system on a private network.

System Requirements

General System Requirements

To run HCTS, your system must meet the following general criteria:

Certification Technology System Requirements

In addition to the general system requirements, your system must meet minimum requirements for your specific testing. The following list shows the certifications performed by HCTS and provides a link to the associated test plan for that certification. Each test plan provides the specific system requirements for each certification.

Note –

Besides providing the system requirements, each test plan provides detailed instructions on how to perform the manual tests for that type of certification. The manual tests must finish successfully before you run HCTS.

Using the HCTS Application

The tasks required to use the HCTS application can be summarized into the following categories:

Each task is described in the following subsections. Depending on the type of certification you want to perform, see Performing Systems Certifications or Performing Controller Certifications.

First, though, see Starting HCTS.

Starting HCTS

HCTS is a web-based application that requires you to point your browser to the system under test. See How to Start HCTS for information about beginning the certification process.

ProcedureHow to Start HCTS

Steps

  1. Start your browser (Mozilla or Netscape).

  2. Type the name or IP address of your test system in the browser Location field.

    For example, if the name of your machine is lab1, you would type the following text in the Location field:

    Location: lab1

  3. Press Enter to start HCTS on that machine.

    The HCTS Welcome Screen appears.

  4. On the HCTS Welcome Screen, select the “I accept the above License Terms” check box.

  5. Click Continue to start the HCTS certification process.

Performing Systems Certifications

Systems Certification enables you to certify a whole system, rather than just a specific controller. The HCTS application tests a number of devices on your system, such as the CD-ROM, the disk drive, the CPU, as well as other devices. See the associated test plan for a complete list of automated tests performed by HCTS during the certification process.

See the following procedure for generalized steps about how to perform a Systems Certification. For specific information about each step and values that can be used, see the HCTS online help.

ProcedureHow to Certify a System

Steps

  1. Click the Systems Certification button to start the system certification process.

  2. Choose either Level 1 or Level 2 from the pull-down menu.

  3. Select the Zip Drive check box if you have a Zip drive attached to the system under test.

  4. Click Continue to go to the Select Action Screen.

  5. Click either the Certify Systems button or the Create Custom Test Generation button, depending on the type of certification that you want to perform.

    • The Certify Systems button enables you to certify your system using the standard set of automated tests for the predetermined amount of time. After clicking the Certify Systems button, the Certification Stress Tests screen appears. Go to the next step to continue the certification process.

    • The Create Custom Test Generation button enables you to create and execute test scenarios based on a predefined list of tests. By customizing these tests, you can do the following:

      • Select runtimes for each test individually

      • Run several tests in parallel, sequentially, or both

      • Start multiple instances and iterations of tests

    See the HCTS online help for the Create Custom Test Generation screen to obtain specific information about how to set up these tests.

    Note –

    If you use the Create Custom Test Generation option, your system does not qualify for the Hardware Certification List. These tests only enable you to perform additional stress testing on your system that might not be done using the standard Certify Systems option.

  6. Type the Network Client Hostname in the field provided.

  7. Click Begin Certification to start the system certification test on the designated network client.

    Once the test starts, the Review Test Status screen displays. See Reviewing Test Status for more information about this screen.

    Note –

    At any time during the test run, you can click Stop Tests to terminate the certification process.

Performing Controller Certifications

Controller Certification enables you to certify designated controller technologies. The HCTS application tests the following controller technologies:

Each controller technology has specific tests run against the controller. See the associated test plan for a complete list of automated tests performed by HCTS during the certification process.

The following procedures show generalized steps for how to perform a Controller Certification for each of the technologies. For specific information about each step and values that can be used, see the HCTS online help.

Network Controller Certification

The HCTS Network Controller certification enables you to test the following technologies:

The testing procedure is the same for each technology. See How to Certify a Network Controller for more information.

Note –

Before certifying network controllers, you must disable NIS.

ProcedureHow to Certify a Network Controller

Steps

  1. Click the Certify Controller button to start the controller certification process.

  2. Choose either Level 1 or Level 2 from the pull-down menu.

  3. In the Network section of the certification screen, select the technology (FDDI, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, or Token Ring) that you want to certify and click Continue.

    Note –

    If you are certifying Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet, select the Enable IPv6 Certification check box if you want to perform IPv6 certification.

  4. Click either the Certify Controller button or the Create Custom Test Generation button, depending on the type of certification that you want to perform.

    • The Certify Controller button enables you to certify your controller using the standard set of automated tests for the predetermined amount of time. After clicking the Certify Controller button, the Certification Stress Tests screen appears. Go to the next step to continue the certification process.

    • The Create Custom Test Generation button enables you to create and execute test scenarios based on a predefined list of tests. By customizing these tests, you can:

      • Select runtimes for each test individually

      • Run several tests in parallel, sequentially, or both

      • Start multiple instances and iterations of tests

    See the HCTS online help for the Create Custom Test Generation screen to obtain specific information about how to set up these tests.

    Note –

    If you use the Create Custom Test Generation option, your system does not qualify for the Hardware Certification List. These tests only enable you to perform additional stress testing on your system that might not be done using the standard Certify Controller option.

  5. Type the Network Client Hostname in the field provided.

  6. Click Begin Certification to start the controller certification.

    Once the test starts, the Review Test Status Screen displays. See Reviewing Test Status for more information about this screen.

    Note –

    At any time during the test, you can click Stop Tests to terminate the certification process.

Storage Controller Certification

The HCTS Storage Controller certification enables you to test the following technologies:

The testing procedure is the same for certifying RAID, SCSI, and Fibre Channel controllers. See How to Certify RAID, SCSI, and Fibre Channel Controllers for more information. The certification process for USB Hard Drives is slightly different. See How to Certify a USB Hard Drive for information.

For specific information about each step and values that can be entered, see the HCTS online help.

Before certifying storage controllers, you must run the make.slices utility to prepare the correct slice layout. See Running make.slices Before Running Storage Tests for information about this process.

Running make.slices Before Running Storage Tests

Before running the storage controller certification in HCTS, you must run the make.slices utility to prepare the correct slice layout.

ProcedureHow to Run the make.slices Utility

Steps

  1. Become superuser.

    $ su

  2. Change directories to /opt/SUNWstaf/config-util.

    # cd /opt/SUNWstaf/config-util

  3. Run the make.slices utility.

    # ./make.slices

    The make.slices utility runs the config.s+h program. For information about config.s+h, see Configuring a System to Run HCTS Storage Tests by Running config.s+h.

  4. Continue running HCTS to certify your storage controller.

Configuring a System to Run HCTS Storage Tests by Running config.s+h

This utility configures a system to be used for stress testing by the HCTS storage tests. The usage for this utility is as follows:

Usage: config.s+h [ -d ] [ -v ]

where -d enables debug mode and -v enables verbose mode.

To use the config.s+h utility, the system at least one disk that does not contain system files. This disk must have an fdisk table, a Solaris partition, and existing device nodes in /dev. No limit exists on the number of disks that can be used for testing. Configuration is done according to information supplied to this program in the user-created ./config.s+h.info file (known as the info-file). This file has entries in the following format:

device [slices] [type] [mount]

where

device

The device name indicated by cntndn or cndn format.

slices

The number of slices to create on the disk. This field is optional. The default is MAXSLICE, which is currently 15.

type

The type of slices to create (raw or file system). This field is optional. The default is raw. 

mount

The mount-point prefix for file systems. This field is optional. The default is MOUNT, which is currently /slice.

The following sample commented entries illustrate the use of the info-file.

c0t1d0 8 f test 
0# Put eight (8) slices on /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0.
# Build file systems on all eight slices.
# Mount the file systems on /test.c0t1d0s1
# through /test.c0t1d0s8. Create /etc/vfstab
# entries for all file systems.

c0d0 10 r
# Put ten (10) slices on /dev/rdsk/c0d0.
# Use all of them as raw devices.

c2t0d0 6 fr tst 
# Put six (6) slices on /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0.
# Build a file system on slice 1, use slice 2 as
# a raw device, build a file system on slice 3,
# use slice 4 as a raw device, etc. Mount the
# three file systems on /tst.c2t0d0s1,
# /tst.c2t0d0s3 and /tst.c2t0d0s5

c2t0d0 6 er tst 
# Same as above, but export the file systems
# and create /etc/dfs/dfstab entries for them.

c2t0d0
# Put MAXSLICE (15) slices on /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0.
# Use all of them as raw devices.

c2t0d0 e
# Put MAXSLICE (15) slices on /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0.
# Build file systems on all slices. Mount the
# file systems on /slice.c2t0d0s0 through
# /slice.c2t0d0s14. Create /etc/vfstab entries
# for all file systems. Export all file systems
# and create /etc/dfs/dfstab entries for them.

ProcedureHow to Certify RAID, SCSI, and Fibre Channel Controllers

Steps

  1. Ensure that you have run the make.slices utility.

    See How to Run the make.slices Utility for information.

  2. Click Certify Controller to start the controller certification process.

  3. Choose either Level 1 or Level 2 from the pull-down menu.

  4. Select the Storage technology (RAID, SCSI, or Fibre Channel) that you want to certify and click Continue.

  5. Click either the Certify Controller button or the Create Custom Test Generation button, depending on the type of certification that you want to perform.

    • The Certify Controller button enables you to certify your controller using the standard set of automated tests for the predetermined amount of time. After clicking the Certify Controller button, the Certification Stress Tests screen appears. Go to the next step to continue the certification process.

    • The Create Custom Test Generation button enables you to create and execute test scenarios based on a predefined list of tests. By customizing these tests, you can do the following:

      • Select runtimes for each test individually

      • Run several tests in parallel, sequentially, or both

      • Start multiple instances and iterations of tests

    See the HCTS online help for the Create Custom Test Generation screen to obtain specific information about how to set up these tests.

    Note –

    If you use the Create Custom Test Generation option, your system does not qualify for the Hardware Certification List. These tests only enable you to perform additional stress testing on your system that might not be done using the standard Certify Controller option.

    After clicking Certify Controller, the certification test starts and HCTS displays the Review Test Status screen. See Reviewing Test Status for more information.

    Note –

    At any time during the test, you can click Stop Tests to terminate the certification process.

ProcedureHow to Certify a USB Hard Drive

Steps

  1. Ensure that you have run the make.slices utility.

    See How to Run the make.slices Utility for information.

  2. Click the Certify Controller button to start the controller certification process.

  3. Choose either Level 1 or Level 2 from the pull-down menu.

  4. Select the USB Hard Drive option and click Continue.

  5. Click either the Certify Controller button or the Create Custom Test Generation button, depending on the type of certification that you want to perform.

    • The Certify Controller button enables you to certify your controller using the standard set of automated tests for the predetermined amount of time. After clicking the Certify Controller button, the Certification Stress Tests screen appears. Go to the next step to continue the certification process.

    • The Create Custom Test Generation button enables you to create and execute test scenarios based on a predefined list of tests. By customizing these tests, you can do the following:

      • Select runtimes for each test individually

      • Run several tests in parallel, sequentially, or both

      • Start multiple instances and iterations of tests

    See the HCTS online help for the Create Custom Test Generation screen to obtain specific information about how to set up these tests.

    Note –

    If you use the Create Custom Test Generation option, your system does not qualify for the Hardware Certification List. These tests only enable you to perform additional stress testing on your system that might not be done using the standard Certify Controller option.

  6. Enter the size of the USB hard drive in the field provided.

    This entry can be one of the following: 60K, 500M, 40G.

  7. Click Begin Certification to start the certification tests.

    Once the test starts, the Review Test Status Screen displays. See the Reviewing Test Status for more information about this screen.

    Note –

    At any time during the test, you can click Stop Tests to terminate the certification process.

Serial I/O Controller Certification

Serial I/O controller certification enables you to certify serial asynchronous interface/PCI (SAI/P) controllers. See the associated test plan for a complete list of the automated tests performed by HCTS during the certification process.

The following procedure shows generalized steps for how to perform a Serial I/O controller certification. For specific information about each step and values that can be used, see the HCTS online help.

ProcedureHow to Certify a Serial I/O Controller

Steps

  1. Click the Certify Controller button to start the controller certification process.

  2. Choose either Level 1 or Level 2 from the pull-down menu.

  3. Select the SAI/P option in the Serial technology section of the Controller Certification screen.

  4. Type the ppp-client name in the field provided and click Continue.

    When indicating multiple clients, separate the clients with commas. For example, a sample entry could be: client1,client2,client3.

  5. Click either the Certify Controller button or the Create Custom Test Generation button, depending on the type of certification that you want to perform.

    • The Certify Controller button enables you to certify your controller using the standard set of automated tests for the predetermined amount of time. After clicking the Certify Controller button, the Certification Stress Tests screen appears. Go to the next step to continue the certification process.

    • The Create Custom Test Generation button enables you to create and execute test scenarios based on a predefined list of tests. By customizing these tests, you can do the following:

      • Select runtimes for each test individually

      • Run several tests in parallel, sequentially, or both

      • Start multiple instances and iterations of tests.

    See the HCTS online help for the Create Custom Test Generation screen to obtain specific information about how to set up these tests.

    Note –

    If you use the Create Custom Test Generation option, your system does not qualify for the Hardware Certification List. These tests only enable you to perform additional stress testing on your system that might not be done using the standard Certify Controller option.

    After clicking Certify Controller, the certification test starts and HCTS displays the Review Test Status screen. See Reviewing Test Status for more information about this screen.

    Note –

    At any time during the test, you can click Stop Tests to terminate the certification process.

Reviewing Test Status

While the test is running, the user interface displays the Review Test Status screen. This screen provides a variety of information for you as described in the following sections.

Note –

If you need to terminate the certification test, you can click Stop Tests at any time on this screen.

Status Display

At the top of the screen, a status bar displays the following information:

Reports and Log Files

During the certification testing, you can view the reports or log files generated by the certification process. You can choose a report or log file from the pull-down menu and then click on View File. The user interface displays the selected report or log file. You can return to the Review Test Status screen by clicking Back on your browser.

After the certification test completes, the following additional buttons are available to you on this screen:

Copying Test Results

After the certification process completes and you have passed all the certification requirements, you need to copy of the test results and submit them to Sun for audit.

ProcedureHow to Copy Test Results

Steps

  1. Click Copy Test Results.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Choose the output device from the device pull-down menu.

    • Type the path of the location on your system to which you would like to copy the test results.

      If the results are copied to a location on your system, you must supply a full path for each test run.

  3. Ensure that the Copy option is selected, not the Preview Test option.

  4. Click Process Report.

    Note –

    If you want to preview the test report before copying it, select the Preview Test option and then click Process Report. The user interface displays the test just as it will appear when it is copied and submitted to Sun for audit. Click Back to get back to the Copy Test Results screen where you can follow the procedure above to copy the test results.

    The HCTS will tar the logs and final reports into one compressed tar archive file named CC.L#.summary.tar.z or SC.L#.summary.tar.z. If you rerun the test suite without deleting this file, the file for the second test run will overwrite the previous file.

    The tar file format indicates the following information:

    • CC indicates a Controller Certification, and L# indicates the level number that you chose.

    • SC indicates a Systems Certification, and L# indicates the level number that you chose.

    You must include the file from your final test run in the certification package that you submit to Sun.

After Certifying Your System

After you are done certifying your system, do the following steps:

  1. Submit your results to Sun for audit.

    See the HCTS web site for information about the submission process.

    http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/hcts

  2. Reinstall your test system back to its original configuration.

    Reinstalling your system removes any modifications made to your system during the certification process and closes the security issue that was created by the HCTS installation process.