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Still challenging to test

The serial consoles do not solve the other problems - managing the very many different configurations, or coordinating the systems to perform a test case.

The author has used such a setup for many years with many Unix operating systems. Using the ``expect'' program and the serial consoles one can automate some of the tests. Some of tests are harder to deal ones - ones that fail can cause the system to hang - this will require operator intervention. Further use of more hardware can solve this problem as well - relays can toggle reset switches or even power cycles.

The result, however, is a very complicated testing environment - it can take weeks to configure it, and mere hours to break. There is far too much specialized hardware involved, not to mention the software.

There is a better way which will be described, but first, the requirements for the testing environemnt will be examined in a bit more detail.



Michael Richardson
2002-06-26