Do either of these problems apply to you?
Problem 1:
I’m waiting for the new release of the product I’m supposed to test. How can get some automation done before I get the first build?
Problem 2:
Our lab contains millions of dollars worth of equipment. And the prototypes for our new products are few and far between. How am I supposed to get all of my tests automated when everyone is competing for access to this limited supply of equipment?
If so, I think you may find the new “virtual testbeds” feature in iTest 3.4 interesting. Fanfare has filed a patent on this technology. It is simple, but compelling. Here’s how it works:
If you know anything about iTest, you probably know about the capture and test report databases. And you probably know something about response mapping. In short, iTest knows a LOT about how various devices respond to various commands. Starting in 3.4, you can now ask iTest to emulate the responses to individual steps in a test, to entire sessions. You can configure the emulated responses for steps. Or you can ask iTest to automatically populate emulated responses from its database. Having once run a test against a real testbed, you can pick up your laptop, get on the train, and continue developing your test cases – executing, adding steps and analysis, and debugging, all while asking iTest to provide emulated responses rather than having it actually talk to the real devices. This works for all kinds of sessions – CLI, SNMP, Web, traffic generators, Tcl, etc.
Simple enough to see how this works. When asked to emulate, iTest just provides the responses directly based on configured emulation data. You might say, “But what good is that? I won’t be testing anything other than iTest’s ability to respond!” But think for a minute. Of all of the time you spend developing an automated test case, how much time do you spend working out the right procedural logic, parameterization, analysis rules, and so on? You probably don’t need to be connected to the real hardware during this time. And that means that instead of needing 10 hours in the lab to get a set of tests running, perhaps you might only need one hour!
But how about the issue of test development before you have the hardware? How does this emulation feature help you? Because you can tell iTest exactly what the responses to any given command should look like, you can use iTest in the usual way – against the current generation of hardware/software, but then insert any new commands you want into your test, and tell iTest what kind of response(s) to provide for those specific steps. You could cut-and-paste these emulated responses from an MRD. Or maybe you just want to make something up as a placeholder, with the information you’re going to need – allowing you to get your test working. Then when you get the real hardware, you can go back and update the response map(s) so that your test cases continue to work when you turn off emulation.
You might worry that “canned” responses for emulation aren't going to cut it. You need fields in your responses to be changing to provide a sufficiently realistic scenario. iTest allows you to use field substitution in these emulated responses so that you can control how these fields vary as the test executes.
Some people ask me whether this means that iTest is emulating these complex devices (like routers, traffic generators, etc.) The answer is “no”. iTest isn’t emulating what a router does. It is emulating how a router responds to a command. That is enough to allow your test development to proceed. And it is so simple, that it isn’t difficult to learn how to use. A few button clicks and BOOM! You are developing tests offline.
If you’d like to learn a bit more about this feature, you can watch a video demonstration here. Or join us for live webinar on May 19 that is focused solely on virtual testbed benefits and use models.
Based on the feedback we’ve gotten so far, we already have plans for additional virtual testbed capabilities in upcoming releases! I’d love to hear what you think about this and other new features in 3.4. So please reply and let me know.
 | Kingston Duffie is the founder and CTO of Fanfare. Learn more about Kingston >> |
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