Automated test system

• US 7,921,345 B2
• Filed: 05/19/2005
• Issued: 04/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Conundrum IP LLC (UiPath Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Smith, Noah H., Carollo, Jeffrey, Trump, Craig R., Patel, Akhil, Rega, Peter D., Morton, John R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel; Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): GANDHI, DIPAKKUMAR B
• Application Number:
  US11/132,569
• Publication Number:
  US 20060265627A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,147 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 714/733
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/263 Generation of test inputs, e.g. test vectors, patterns or sequences ; with adaptation of the tested hardware for testability with external testers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites

Abstract

A system comprising a plurality of components and an automation module coupled to the plurality of components. The automation module is adapted to automatically initialize a software test environment for at least one of the plurality of components, where the software test environment prepares the at least one of the plurality of components to be tested. The automation module also is adapted to, without transferring a testing agent to the at least one of the plurality of components, automatically test the at least one of the plurality of components.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a plurality of components; and

an automation module coupled to the plurality of components;

wherein the automation module is adapted to automatically initialize a software test environment for at least one of the plurality of components, wherein said software test environment prepares the at least one of the plurality of components to be tested;

wherein the automation module is adapted to, without transferring a testing agent to said at least one of the plurality of components, automatically test said at least one of the plurality of components;

wherein the automation module is capable of evaluating its workload and rejecting a test instruction input to the module based on the evaluation.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the automation module tests, independently of each other, at least some of the plurality of components.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the automation module simultaneously tests the at least some of the plurality of components.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the automation module tests the at least one of the plurality of components by automatically transferring test commands to the at least one of the plurality of components.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the automation module automatically groups a first test command with a second test command, each of the first and second test commands intended for a common component.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the plurality of components is physically separate from the automation module.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the automation module is wirelessly coupled to at least some of the plurality of components.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the automation module determines the availability of a component for testing.

9. A testing apparatus, comprising:

an accepting module configured to evaluate a workload of the testing apparatus and reject a test instruction input to the module based on the evaluation;

a scheduling module adapted to automatically partition test instructions into groups; and

a processing module coupled to said scheduling module and adapted to automatically convert at least some of the groups of test instructions into groups of test commands, said test commands capable of being processed by a remote system under test (SUT) external to the testing apparatus;

wherein the processing module automatically tests the remote SUT using a group of test commands provided to the SUT and without transferring a testing agent to the remote SUT, said remote SUT being one of a plurality of SUTs;

wherein the testing apparatus is adapted to automatically modify a test instruction based on a testing environment needed to use the test instruction.

10. The testing apparatus of claim 9, wherein the testing apparatus is adapted to simultaneously test at least some of the plurality of SUTs, the SUTs coupled to the testing apparatus via a network.

11. The testing apparatus of claim 10, wherein at least some of the SUTs are tested independently of each other.

12. The testing apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processing module automatically tests the remote SUT using the group of test commands to configure and execute a test application, said test application adapted to stress the remote SUT and located on one of the remote SUT or the processing module.

13. The testing apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processing module automatically initializes a testing environment on the remote SUT.

14. The testing apparatus of claim 9 further comprising an accepting module adapted to store a test instruction intended for the remote SUT until the remote SUT is available.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

a decoding module that translates a given test instruction received from an instruction queue into a format suitable for processing by the processing module, and provides additional test instructions to the processing module based on and not provided for by the given test instruction.

16. A method, comprising:

partitioning a plurality of, test instructions into groups based on identification in each of the test instructions of a remote system to be tested using the instruction, each group testing a disjoint set of remote systems;

converting at least some of the groups of test instructions into groups of test commands capable of being processed by corresponding remote systems; and

without transferring a testing agent to any of the remote systems, simultaneously testing at least some of the remote systems by transferring at least some of the groups of test commands to the at least some of the remote systems.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein simultaneously testing the at least some of the remote systems comprises testing the at least some of the remote systems independently of each other.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein testing the at least some of the remote systems comprises at least one of configuring and executing test applications using the test commands, said test applications stored on the at least some of the remote systems and adapted to stress the at least some of the remote systems.

19. The method of claim 16 further comprising automatically storing test instructions in a queue and processing the test instructions provided from the queue when a pertinent, remote system is available, wherein the processing comprises the partitioning, the converting, and the transferring.

20. The method of claim 16 further comprising determining whether one of the remote systems is available for testing.

21. A system, comprising:

means for partitioning a plurality of test instructions into groups based on identification in each of the test instructions of a remote system to be tested using the instruction, each group testing a disjoint set of remote systems, wherein remote systems are unable to execute the test instructions;

means for converting at least some of the groups of test instructions into groups of test commands capable of being executed by corresponding remote systems; and

means for simultaneously testing, without transferring a testing agent to any of the remote systems, at least some of the remote systems by transferring at least some of the groups of test commands to the at least some of the remote systems.

22. The system of claim 21 further comprising means for determining whether one of the remote systems is available for testing.