The Mu Test Platform
The Mu Test Suite is built on a powerful automation platform that provides extensive automation, monitors and restarters and reporting capabilities. This software is delivered in an easy-to-install appliance, the Mu-8000:
The Mu Test Suite incorporates a rich set of automation features that allow it to seamlessly integrate into most lab environments. Besides the ability of the Mu Test Suite to control other devices (see Monitors and Restarters), it can be controlled via a rich web-based GUI, as well as three other control interfaces:
The Mu Test Suite's GUI is not the only way users can interact with it. Many users prefer scripting languages and the Mu Test Suite's REST API enables users familiar with tcl, PERL, Python, etc. to integrate the Mu Test Suite into their scripting frameworks.
Users that have adopted STAF, the open-source Software Testing Automation Framework, will find it easy to integrate the Mu Test Suite into their environment since all the Mu's capabilities are exposed via the WSDL document.
The test results from the Mu Test Suite can be easily exported into existing HP Quality Center projects. Test results are summarized for easy reference and all aspects of the tests are attached to the Test Set. Organizations that already depend on HP Quality Center can easily disseminate test results with all project stakeholders throughout the organization.
The Mu Test Suite also provides a variety of ways to restore the proper functioning of an IP Service that has become unresponsive during testing. These various types of restarters correspond to the different types of devices or software processes which might be involved in the testing:
- Restarters
- Kernel-mode (power-cycle an unresponsive device)
- Process-mode (restart crashed foreground processes)
- Service-mode (start and stop background processes, i.e., "services")
The Mu Test Suite is able to monitor the service under test via a variety of in-band and out-of-band methods:
- Protocol Instrumentation
- Fault isolation
- Response-time charting
- Serial Console I/O
- Fault isolation
- Event correlation
- Dynamic actions
- SSH/TELNET sessions
- Fault isolation
- Event correlation
- Dynamic actions
- Digital I/O monitor
- SNMP
At the end of the day, the result of testing is a report, documenting the test configuration, who performed the test, when the test was executed, what was tested and what faults were found (if any). A variety of report types are provided, including executive summary reports, fault-level (detailed) reports, and these results are presented in a variety of formats: Portable Document Format, HTML archives, etc. During a test cycle, reports provide the key metrics needed to track issues to resolution.
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