Scalable control system for test execution and monitoring utilizing multiple processors

• US 8,464,219 B1
• Filed: 04/27/2011
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Spirent Communications Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Spirent Communications Incorporated
• Inventors: Wilkerson, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): DENG, ANNA CHEN
• Application Number:
  US13/095,807
• Time in Patent Office: 776 Days
• Field of Search: 717/100, 717/120, 717/121, 717/124
• US Class Current: 717/120
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/26 Functional testing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3672 Test management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software

Abstract

Various example embodiments are directed to systems and methods for managing a plurality of distributed test engines to test at least one device under analysis (DUA). A controller and a control database may be used to manage the plurality of test engines. The control database may have stored thereon a plurality of configuration documents, a plurality of instruction documents, and at least one statistics document. Each configuration document may be associated with at least one of the plurality of test engines and may indicate an execution group of the associated at least one test engine. Each instruction document may be associated with an execution group and may comprise an indication of a testing task to be performed by the execution group associated with the instruction document. The controller may be configured to write to the plurality of configuration documents to assign each of the plurality of test engines to an execution group; write to the plurality of instruction documents to provide, for each execution group, a testing task to be performed by test engines of the execution group on the at least one DUA. The control database may configured to receive from at least a portion of a plurality of test engines an update to the at least one statistics document.

Claims

1. A system for managing a plurality of distributed test engines to test at least one device under analysis (DUA), the system comprising:

at least one computer device comprising a processor and associated memory, wherein the at least one computer device is programmed to execute a controller; and

a control database stored on a data storage device in communication with the at least one computer device, wherein the control database is also in communication with the controller and with at least a portion of the plurality of test engines via an application program interface (API), and wherein the control database comprises stored thereon;

a plurality of configuration documents, wherein each configuration document is associated with at least one of the plurality of test engines, and wherein each configuration document indicates an execution group of the associated at least one test engine;

a plurality of instruction documents, wherein each instruction document is associated with an execution group, wherein each execution group comprises a portion of the plurality of distributed test engines, and wherein each instruction document comprises an indication of a testing task to be performed by the execution group associated with the instruction document;

at least one statistics document for storing output from the plurality of test engines;

wherein the controller application is configured to;

write to the plurality of configuration documents to assign each of the plurality of test engines to an execution group; and

write to the plurality of instruction documents to provide, for each execution group, a testing task to be performed by test engines of the execution group on the at least one DUA; and

wherein the control database is configured to receive via the API and from at least a portion of a plurality of test engines an update to the at least one statistics document.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least two of a first configuration document associated with a first test engine selected from the plurality of test engines, an instruction document associated with an execution group comprising the first test engine and a statistics document associated with the first test engine are stored at the control database in a common file.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the indication of the testing task to be performed by the execution group comprises a script to be executed by the test engines of the execution group to perform the testing task.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the indication of the testing task to be performed by the execution group comprises a universal resource locater (URL) pointing to a script to be executed by test engines of the execution group to perform the testing task.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the indication of the testing task to be performed by the execution group comprises a start time for the testing task.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the control database is a distributed database comprising a plurality of database nodes.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein a first portion of the plurality of configuration documents, a first portion of the plurality of instruction documents and a first portion of the plurality of statistics documents are assigned to a first node selected from the plurality of database nodes, and wherein a second portion of the plurality of configuration documents, a second portion of the plurality of instruction documents and a second portion of the plurality of statistics documents are assigned to a second node selected from the plurality of database nodes.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the API is configured to receive requests from at least one of the controller and one of the plurality of test engines according to hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the API is implemented to respond to requests consistent with Representational State Transfer (REST) constraints.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one DUA are configured to communicate with one another via a first network, and wherein the controller, the plurality of test engines and the control database are configured to communicate with one another on a control network separate from the first network.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising a firewall positioned between the first network and the control network.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the controller application is also configured to:

receive an indication that at least a portion of the first network has failed; and

write to the control database over the control network after receiving the indication that at least the portion of the first network has failed.

13. A computer-implemented method for communicating with a plurality of distributed test engines for testing at least one device under analysis (DUA), the method comprising:

writing to a plurality of configuration documents at a control database by a controller executed by at least one computer device, wherein the controller is in communication with the

control database via an application program interface (API), wherein each of the plurality of configuration documents corresponds to one of the plurality of test engines, and wherein writing to the plurality of configuration documents comprises writing to each of the plurality of configuration documents an indication of an execution group associated with the corresponding test engine;

writing to a plurality of instruction documents by the controller, wherein each of the plurality of instruction documents corresponds to one execution group comprising at least one of the plurality of test engines, and wherein writing to the plurality of instruction documents comprises writing to each of the plurality of instruction documents an indication of a testing task to be performed by the corresponding execution group; and

receiving at the control database from at least one of the plurality of test engines an update to at least one statistics document stored at the control database, wherein the at least one statistics document stores output from the plurality of test engines.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein at least two of a configuration document corresponding to a first of the plurality of test engines, an instruction document corresponding to a first execution group including the first of the plurality of test engines and a statistics document associated with the first of the plurality of test engines are stored at the control database in a common file.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the indication of the testing task to be performed by the corresponding execution group comprises a script to be executed by the test engines of the execution group to perform the testing task.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the indication of the testing task to be performed by the corresponding execution group comprises a universal resource locater (URL) pointing to a script to be executed by test engines of the execution group to perform the testing task.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the indication of the testing task to be performed by the corresponding execution group comprises an indication of a start time for the testing task.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the control database is a distributed database comprising a plurality of database nodes.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein a first portion of the plurality of configuration documents, a first portion of the plurality of instruction documents and a first portion of the plurality of statistics documents are assigned to a first node selected from the plurality of database nodes, and wherein a second portion of the plurality of configuration documents, a second portion of the plurality of instruction documents and a second portion of the plurality of statistics documents are assigned to a second node selected from the plurality of database nodes.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the API is configured to receive requests from at least one of the controller and one of the plurality of test engines according to hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the API is implemented to respond to requests consistent with Representational State Transfer (REST) constraints.

22. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one DUA are configured to communicate with one another via a first network, and wherein the controller, the plurality of test engines and the control database are configured to communicate with one another on a control network separate from the first network.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the plurality of test engines communicating with the control database over a firewall positioned between the first network and the control network.