Chapter 3. Preparing the Test Environment

3.1. Test Environment Overview

The test environment for Red Hat Enterprise Linux certification consists of at least two networked machines, each running Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the certification test suite. The first machine is the system under test (SUT) and contains the hardware that will undergo certification. The SUT runs the version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on which the hardware is being certified.

The second machine is the local test server (LTS) which serves as the command and control unit that issues test commands to the SUT. The LTS runs the latest version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x. A single LTS system can control multiple SUT systems, but it should only perform network or kdump testing on one SUT at a time due to network bandwidth limitations.

The appropriate version(s) of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for your environment can be downloaded from the Red Hat Customer Portal at: https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/69.

The certification test suite that runs on both the LTS and SUT is composed of the following packages:

  • dt
  • lmbench
  • stress
  • redhat-certification-backend
  • redhat-certification-hardware
  • redhat-certification (RHEL 7 only)
  • python-django (RHEL 7 only)
  • python-django-bash-completion (RHEL 7 only)

All test suite packages are available on the Red Hat Customer Portal at: https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/282/.

The certification test suite also requires two debuginfo files to be installed on the SUT:

  • kernel-debuginfo-$VERSION

    where $VERSION is the running kernel version number as shown in the output of uname -a or via the kernel RPM filename

  • kernel-debuginfo-common-$ARCH-$VERSION

    where $ARCH is x86_64, i686, etc. and $VERSION is the same as above

The debuginfo packages can be downloaded from the Red Hat Customer Portal as explained in the Appendix of the following Red Hat Knowledgebase article: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/9907.

Note

Be sure to follow the directions in the Appendix for downloading the files; do not register the SUT with the Red Hat Customer Portal and download using that method.

3.2. Prepare the System Under Test (SUT)

  1. Locate the SUT and all the components that must be tested as part of the certification activities.
  2. Download the appropriate architecture and version of RHEL, the certification test suite, and the necessary debuginfo packages from the locations mentioned earlier and install them on the SUT.

The OS should be configured as explained in the appropriate RHEL kickstart file that can be found using the following link. Choose the file that matches the version and architecture of RHEL you are certifying: http://people.redhat.com/gcase/rhcert-2/ks/.

If you are not using kickstart to perform your installation, please consult the guide at the top of the kickstart file for more information on proper, manual installation.

3.3. Prepare the Local Test Server (LTS)

  1. Locate an appropriate machine to function as the LTS.

    The LTS is not required to be a certified system; however, to ensure proper functionality, network connectivity should be of equal or greater speed than the interfaces on the SUT in order to properly test the SUT’s network devices.

  2. Download the appropriate architecture and version of

  3. Install them on the LTS.

  4. Configure the OS as explained in the appropriate RHEL kickstart file available at http://people.redhat.com/gcase/rhcert-2/ks/. Choose the file for RHEL 7.

    If you are not using kickstart to perform your installation, consult the guide at the top of the kickstart file for more information on proper manual installation.

  5. Run the following command to start Apache, Red Hat Certification back-end server and the server listener process: # rhcertd start

3.3.1. Hosting Prebuilt Guest Files on the LTS

If the system being tested supports virtualization, that feature must be tested. We have prebuilt guest files that are automatically downloaded by the SUT during the fv_* tests to satisfy this requirement. Those files can be hosted on your LTS if you wish to shorten the download time from the Red Hat FTP site, or if your testing environment is disconnected from the network.

The files for x86_64 architecture are available at the following location:

The files for aarch64 fv testing (RHEL7 only) are available at the following location:

The files for ppc64le fv testing (RHEL7 only) are available at the following location:

The files for s390x(alt) are available at the following location:

The kickstart files mentioned earlier have a section in them to automatically download and install the files on the LTS. If you wish to manually download the files and place them on your LTS, here are the steps to take:

After setting up a local test server as explained in section Prepare the Local Test Server.

Certify for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

  1. Create a directory on the LTS called /var/www/rhcert/store/transfer/fv-images/RHEL7.
  2. Copy the following files of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 FTP site to the local directory:

x86_64 architecture files:

  • hwcertData.img.tar.bz2 Results transfer package from guest to host
  • hwcert-x86_64.xml.tar.bz2 Full-virt guest configuration file for x86_64
  • hwcert-x86_64.img.tar.bz2 Full-virt KVM guest image for x86_64

aarch64 fv testing files:

  • hwcertData.img.tar.bz2 Results transfer package from guest to host
  • hwcert-aarch64.xml.tar.bz2 Full-virt guest configuration file
  • hwcert-aarch64.img.tar.bz2 Full-virt KVM guest image
  • hwcert-aarch64_VARS.fd.tar.bz2 Full-virt nvram file

ppc64le fv testing files:

  • hwcertData.img.tar.bz2 Results transfer package from guest to host
  • hwcert-ppc64le.xml.tar.bz2 Full-virt guest configuration file
  • hwcert-ppc64le.img.tar.bz2 Full-virt KVM guest image

s390x(alt) files:

  • hwcertData.img.tar.bz2 Results transfer package from guest to host
  • hwcert-s390x.xml.tar.bz2 Full-virt guest configuration file
  • hwcert-s390x.img.tar.bz2 Full-virt KVM guest image

Certify for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

  1. Create a directory on the LTS called /var/www/rhcert/store/transfer/fv-images/RHEL6.

  2. Copy the following files from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 FTP site above into the local directory:

    • hwcertData.img.tar.bz2 Results transfer package from guest to host
    • hwcert-x86_64.xml.tar.bz2 Full-virt guest configuration file for x86_64
    • hwcert-x86_64.img.tar.bz2 Full-virt KVM guest image for x86_64
Note

If you are using redhat-certification version redhat-certification-5.3-20171023.6.el7 or later on the LTS, and redhat-certification-hardware version prior to redhat-certification-hardware-5.6 on the SUT, you must first add the following to a new file on the LTS, /etc/httpd/conf.d/atemp.conf: 

Alias /store "/var/www/rhcert/store"
<Directory "/var/www/rhcert/store">
    Options Indexes FollowSymlinks
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

Make certain to run rhcertd restart on the LTS after saving the file.

3.4. Proxy Settings for Test Server and Test Client

If your network utilizes a proxy, you may need to manually configure the test server and/or test client for the proxy as outlined below:

In the test server, update the /etc/rhcert.xml file as per the following settings: 

<urls>
<proxy-url protocol="http">PROXY_SERVER:PROXY_PORT</proxy-url>
<proxy-url protocol="https">PROXY_SERVER:PROXY_PORT</proxy-url>
</urls>

Replace PROXY_SERVER with the IP or dns-name of your proxy server, and PROXY_PORT with your proxy port number.

For example: 

<proxy-url protocol="http">http://rhcert-example.redhat.com:3148<proxy-url>
<proxy-url protocol="https">https://rhcert-example.redhat.com:3148<proxy-url>

To open port 80 and port 8009 on test server and test client, run the rhcert-cli register command.

For more information, we recommend you to refer How can we access to the Hardware Certification (rhcertd web interface) via proxy?