Method and computer program product for testing a software application

• US 20070168967A1
• Filed: 10/27/2005
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chopra, Tarun, Miller, Robert, Sica, Andrew, Rankin, Thomas, Jones, Nicholas, Zobre, Douglas
• Granted Patent: US 8,032,790 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/124
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites

Abstract

A method and computer program product for testing a software application program. Randomized input is provided into a logging facility and automated testing of the logging facility is performed in a multi-processing environment. Self-verification of data retrieved from the logging facility is performed to ensure no data loss occurs due to external system events or failures driven by a test tool. Real-time analysis of results received is performed by the test tool based on the randomized input into the logging facility. First failure data is captured and self-verification of results of a data recovery operation of the logging facility is performed in a disaster recovery scenario.

Claims

1. A method for testing a software application program, the method comprising:

providing randomized input into a logging facility;

performing automated testing of the logging facility in a multi-processing environment;

performing self-verification of data retrieved from the logging facility to ensure no data loss occurs due to external system events or failures driven by a test tool;

performing real-time analysis of results received by the test tool based on the randomized input into the logging facility;

capturing first failure data; and

performing self-verification of results of a data recovery operation of the logging facility in a disaster recovery scenario.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the automated testing of the logging facility is performed simultaneously on multiple systems that share multiple resources.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the automated testing drives and verifies functions and capabilities of a logging function in the multi-processing environment in order to facilitate an automated regression test (ART) of the logging function.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the multi-processing environment uses multiple log streams in order to drive timing windows.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising issuing dynamic commands to an operating system in order to alter characteristics of the logging facility.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising asynchronously logging events and dynamically updating attributes of permanent logs.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein when a data loss is detected, relevant first failure data capture information is captured and a determination is made (i) concerning missing data and (ii) concerning one or more causes of the data loss.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein verification of log block data involves comparing attributes of each read log block with an expected attribute.

20. A computer program product for testing a software application program, the computer program product comprising:

a storage medium; and

program instructions stored on the storage medium for performing the method steps of claim 1.

10. A method for testing a software application program, the method comprising:

providing randomized input into a logging facility;

performing automated testing of the logging facility in a multi-processing environment; and

performing a logging function, which is a system logger;

wherein the automated testing of the system logger comprises the following tasks;

a user interface task;

an event notification facility (ENF) monitor task;

a main procedure task; and

one or more auxiliary tasks.

9. The method according to claim 10, wherein the verification of the log block involves a time stamp attribute, a log block identifier attribute, a log block contents attribute and a script descriptor attribute.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein

the event notification facility (ENF) monitor task monitors for ENF events that indicate state changes in the system logger and the associated log streams.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein:

each auxiliary task runs in a separate address space and performs additional write, read and query functions.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein a system failure and disaster recovery task is run only when system failure and disaster recovery scenarios are detected.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the system failure and disaster recovery task verifies the system logger'"'"'s ability to recover data from secondary recording mediums.

15. The method according to claim 10, wherein the automated testing of the system logger is performed via a component test tool multi-system communications task (CTTX).

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the CTTX allows the automated testing of the system logger to synchronize startup, shutdown, input/output (I/O) and verification functions between different systems in a sysplex.

17. The method according to claim 10, wherein the main procedure task performs the following:

writing a number of log blocks to a log stream;

forcing log data to be off-loaded from a primary storage to a direct access storage device (DASD);

performing dynamic update of the log stream attributes;

swapping duplexing of the log stream;

reading the number of log blocks from the log stream; and

performing a synchronization operation.

18. The method according to claim 10, wherein each auxiliary task performs the following:

writing a block to the log stream with contents that identify the block;

reading every log block in the log stream from an oldest log block to a recent log block with a first command;

reading every log block in the log stream from the recent log block to the oldest log block with a second command; and

querying log stream attributes.

19. A computer program product for testing a software application program, the computer program product comprising:

a storage medium; and

program instructions stored on the storage medium for performing the method steps of claim 10.