Methods and structure for maintaining state information to resume automated test processing after reset

• US 6,757,634 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2002
• Issued: 06/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: LSI Logic Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lara, John M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nghiem, Michael
• Application Number:
  US10/166,513
• Publication Number:
  US 20030229467A1
• Time in Patent Office: 750 Days
• Field of Search: 702/117-119, 702/123, 702/182-185, 714/30, 714/36, 714/47
• US Class Current: 702/119
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/319 Tester hardware, i.e. output processing circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2635 using a storage for the test inputs, e.g. test ROM, script files

Abstract

Methods and associated structure for saving and restoration of state information regarding progress of an automated test procedure to permit resumption of the automated test procedure following reset or failure of the automated test system. An automated test system in accordance with the present invention preferably saves state information in a non-volatile storage medium, such as a disk file, indicative of the progress of the test procedure. When the test system environment in which the automated test system is operable is reset or restarted, intentionally or due to failure, the automated test system retrieves previously saved state information from the non-volatile storage medium to resume the automated test process in accordance with the saved state information.

Claims

1. An automated test system including:

an automated test system application operable on a host system; and

a non-volatile memory component coupled to said host system wherein said automated test system application is operable to store state information on said non-volatile memory component indicative of progress in a present test procedure such that said automated test system may be resumed in accordance with said state information,

wherein the automated test system is adapted to retrieve the stored state information from the non-volatile memory component to resume operation of the automated test system in response to restart of the host system.

2. The automated teat system of claim 1 further comprising:

a task scheduler component operable on said host system and associated with the automated test system application to retrieve said state information from said non-volatile memory component in response to restart of said host system.

3. The automated test system of claim 1 further comprising:

a system under test application operable on said host system and communicatively coupled with said automated test system application wherein said automated test system application is operable to verify operation of said system under test application.

4. The automated test system of claim 3 further comprising:

a system under test communicatively coupled with said system under test application.

5. The automated test system of claim 4 wherein said system under test is a storage subsystem and wherein said system under test application is a storage management application program.

6. The automated test system of claim 1 wherein said state information includes:

a test completion flag indicating completion of an associated test case.

7. The automated test system of claim 1 wherein said state information includes:

a test success flag indicating passage of an associated test case.

8. A method for automated testing of a system under test comprising the steps of:

initiating an automated test procedure to test said system under test;

periodically recording in a non-volatile memory device state information indicative of progress of said automated test procedure; and

resuming said automated test procedure in accordance with said state information wherein the resumption of said automated test procedure is in response to reset of a host system on which the method is operating.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said automated test procedure is comprised of a plurality of test cases and wherein said state information includes information indicating completion state of said plurality of test cases and wherein the step of resuming includes the step of:

continuing said automated test procedure with test cases of said plurality of test cases for which said completion state is not recorded in said state information.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of:

providing test case dependency information indicating dependencies among said plurality of test cases such that a test case may only be performed when all other test cases on which it depends are successfully completed,

wherein the step of continuing includes the step of;

continuing said automated test procedure with test cases for which all dependency information is satisfied.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein said automated test procedure is comprised of a plurality of test cases and wherein the step of periodically recording comprises the step of:

recording completion state at the completion of each of said plurality of test cases.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein said automated test procedure is comprised of a plurality of test cases and wherein the atop of periodically recording comprises the step of:

recording successful completion state at the successful completion of each of said plurality of test cases.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein said automated test procedure is comprised of a plurality of test cases and wherein the step of periodically recording comprises the steps of:

recording successful completion state at the successful completion of each of said plurality of test cases; and

recording unsuccessful completion state at the unsuccessful completion of any of said plurality of test cases.

14. A system for automated testing of a system under test comprising:

means for initiating an automated test procedure to test said system under test;

means, associated with said means for initiating said automated test procedure, for periodically recording in a non-volatile memory device state information indicative of progress of said automated test procedure; and

means for resuming said automated test procedure in accordance with said state information wherein the resumption of said automated test procedure is in response to reset of a host system on which the system is operating.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein said automated test procedure is comprised of a plurality of test cases and wherein said state information includes information indicating completion state of said plurality of test cases and wherein the means for resuming includes:

means for continuing said automated test procedure with test cases of said plurality of test cases for which said completion state is not recorded in said state information.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising:

means for providing test case dependency information indicating dependencies among said plurality of test cases such that a test case may only be performed when all other test cases on which it depends are successfully completed,

wherein the means for continuing includes;

means for continuing said automated test procedure with test cases for which all dependency information is satisfied.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein said automated test procedure is comprised of a plurality of test cases and wherein the means for periodically recording comprises:

means for recording completion state at the completion of each of said plurality of test cases.

18. The system of claim 14 wherein said automated test procedure is comprised of a plurality of test cases and wherein the means for periodically recording comprises:

means for recording successful completion state at the successful completion of each of said plurality of test cases.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein said automated test procedure is comprised of a plurality of test cases and wherein the means for periodically recording comprises:

means for recording successful completion state at the successful completion of each of said plurality of test cases; and

means for recording unsuccessful completion state at the unsuccessful completion of any of said plurality of test cases.