Chapter 4. Certification Workflow

4.1. Certification Workflow Overview

The following diagram represents the entire Certified Cloud and Service Provider (CCSP) certification workflow along with the roles & responsibilities of Red Hat and the Partners.

Certification Workflow

4.2. Create a Certification Request

To create a new certification request, complete the following steps:

In your test server, launch Red Hat Certification web user interface in a browser using the http://<machine-IP>.

  1. Type your Red Hat account credentials previously enabled for certification in the Username and Password fields. Click Login.
  2. Click the New Certification button. This will take you to Choose the Red Hat Certification web page.
  3. From the Product drop-down list, select Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The Version and Platform value gets generated automatically. However, partners can select the version, platform and RHEL version according to their requirement. Click Next, this will take you to the Choose the product to be certified web page.
  4. Select the Vendor, Make and Name items from the drop-down list. Click Next.
  5. A notification of the requested Cloud certification gets displayed.
Note

If you do not see Red Hat Certified Cloud Provider option on Red Hat Certification web user interface, ensure that you are logged in with the account previously enabled for certification and have completed all the certification prerequisites. For further assistance, try opening-a-support-case.

4.3. Run Certification Tests

4.3.1. Overview

Certification tests can be run on the image-under-test using Red Hat Certification web UI (by launching Red Hat Certification application on the local test server) or by using Red Hat Certification CLI.

4.3.2. Run Certification Tests using Red Hat Certification WUI

To run certification tests on the image-under-test using Red Hat Certification web user interface, complete the following steps on the test server:

  1. Launch Red Hat Certification web user interface in a browser using the http://machine-IP link. Replace machine-IP with the IP address/hostname of your machine.
  2. Type Red Hat account credentials previously enabled for certification in the User Name and Password fields. Click Log In.

  3. On Red Hat Certification Home Page, click the Server settings tab.

    Server Setting
  4. In the Register a System field, enter the hostname or IP address of the image-under-test and then click Add.

  5. On Red Hat Certification Home Page, click on your existing certification entry.

    Add Product

    The Progress Page opens and displays the certification tests available in the certification test suite and the progress of the previous runs (if any).

  6. Click the Testing link to open the Testing Page.
  7. In the Testing Page, click Add System.

  8. In the Select Host Page, select the host/hostname of the image-under-test and click Test.

    The Testing Page opens and a certification test plan is created for the image-under-test. After the certification test plan run is complete and the test plan is ready, the status column displays a “Finished test run” status and a Continue Testing button.

    Continue Testing
  9. Click Continue Testing.

  10. From the Run Table, select all the tests which are displayed and then click Run Selected.

    Run Selected
Note

It is mandatory to run all the tests which are displayed after the creation of a test plan for certification. It is recommended to select and run specific tests only for debugging purposes if advised by Red Hat Review team.

Result

Certification tests are run on the image-under-test. The status of the certification test run is displayed on the Testing Page. Tests with the interactive label will require feedback from the user during runtime. The status column on the Testing page displays a question and a textbox for inputs during testing. The test pauses until you provide a response and click Submit.

After the test run completes, the test logs from various tests are stored in a single log file in .xml.gz format.

4.3.3. Run Certification Tests using Red Hat Certification CLI

Red Hat certification CLI(rhcert-cli) command allows partners to run tests in interactive mode. To run the certification tests using Red Hat Certification CLI, execute the following commands on the image-under-test: 

# rhcert-cli

Certain tests require feedback from the user during runtime (on the CLI). The test pauses until you provide a response and click Enter. The following screenshot shows an example.

Needs Review
Note

It is recommended that you run all the tests.

After the tests run, the test logs/results are automatically collected in a single .xml.gz file. To save the test results/logs, run the following command on the image-under-test: 

# rhcert-cli save --server [hostname/IP address of LTS]

It is also possible to directly submit the test results/logs for validation without saving them on the image-under-test.

Note

To run tests in a non-interactive mode, Partners can execute the rhcert-ci command. To run tests on a remote client that has redhat-certification-backend installed and is running rhcertd, you must execute the rhcert-ci command on the Red Hat Certification image-under-test.

Refer the KB article for rhcert-cli or rhcert-ci optional argument subcommands.

4.4. View the Test Logs and Submit the Test Logs for Review

4.4.1. View the Test Logs and Submit the Test Logs for Review using Red Hat Certification WUI

To view and submit the test logs using Red Hat Certification web user interface (launched on the test server), complete the following steps. The following procedure also provides steps to submit, save, download and delete the test results/log file. However, it is mandatory to submit the test log file to Red Hat Certification services for validation.

  1. Launch Red Hat Certification web user interface on the test server.
  2. From the Certification Page, click the relevant certification entry.
  3. Click the Testing link to open the Testing Page.

  4. In the Testing page, click the timestamp under the relevant hostname that corresponds to the results you wish to view.

    Results Link

  5. From the Actions list, select an appropriate action based on the following details:

    Note

    You may view the results of each test from the Results column in the table.

    • To submit the test log file for validation, select Submit. To close the test log file, select Close
    • To save the test log file on a different Red Hat Certification server, select Save. The save action transfers the test log file (in .xml.gz format) to a remote server which has Red Hat Certification application installed. If you save the test log file on a different Red Hat Certification server, you must submit the log file from the same server
    • To download the test log file (in .xml.gz format), select Download
    • To delete the test log file from the server, select Delete

The Submit option submits the consolidated test log or test results file to Red Hat certification services for review.

4.4.2. View the Test Logs and Submit the Test Logs for Review using Red Hat Certification CLI

To submit the test logs using Red Hat Certification CLI, use the # rhcert-cli submit command on the image-under-test.

Type your Red Hat account credentials previously enabled for certification in the Red Hat Catalog Username and Password. The Certification ID is generated when you successfully create a certification request. Type the ID of the certification request in the Certification ID dialog box.

Note

You can view your product Certification ID in the Details tab with the row named as certification_id.

The # rhcert-cli submit command works only if the image has a network that can connect to the Red Hat services. The command submits the latest timestamped test logs on your host/image to Red Hat certification services for review. The test log file is reviewed by Red Hat certification services and Red Hat Review team. The certification results are displayed on Red Hat Certification web user interface.

If the image-under-test does not have internet access, complete the following steps to submit the test log file:

  1. Save the results to a file using the rhcert-cli --save command. Copy the file to a USB.
  2. Connect the USB to your LTS.
  3. To upload the copied file, click Upload Results File button on the Testing tab of your certification page.
  4. To submit the test results click on the timestamp link. On the Progress tab click the Submit button.

After the result is successfully submitted, the certificate state in Testing tab changes to Submitted.

The uploaded file will appear in the Testing tab of the Certification page and will be associated with the Certification ID and the Program.

Note

The uploaded file will replace the original file if both the filenames are same.

4.5. Review and Posting of Certification

The test log file submitted after a certification test run is validated by Red Hat certification services and the Review Team. The review team may get in touch with the partner using the Dialog tab on Red Hat Certification web user interface to confirm specific results and obtain more information.

In some instances, there may be a need to rerun some tests. However, the logs from the rerun can be submitted using the existing certification request. The final certification results are displayed on Red Hat Certifcation web user interface. To view certification results, check the Show In Progress Certifications button on Red Hat Certification web user interface.

After a successful certification, the certified product is listed on Red Hat Certified Cloud Providers Page.