Announcing Automated Remote iSCSI Testing

Since its launch in 2010, the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) Remote iSCSI Target Tester has been a test tool with great potential. The ability to remotely execute tests from both the Target Login and Target Full Feature Phase (FFP) Test Suites gives vendors the opportunity to tweak their implementation before shipping a device to the lab for full testing. Details specific to the Remote iSCSI Target Tester were discussed in a previous blog, “Remotely Testing iSCSI Targets” by Amy Davies.

A common goal among many consortia within the lab is to further automate their testing procedures, in order to free technicians from some of the more tedious tasks involved in testing and streamline the process as a whole. Passing these benefits along to vendors was the motivating force behind the development of the new iSCSI Remote Target Tester Web API. The iSCSI Remote Tester Web API operates via the sending of HTTP POST requests. In response to these requests, users of the API are returned plain-text detailed results, as they would ordinarily appear from the remote tester web interface along with an easily parsable results summary table. Such requests can be issued via command line data transfer utilities supporting HTTP POST requests. Obtaining test results via command line gives members the ability to further automate their product development. For example, a member company could schedule a command using the Remote iSCSI Tester Web API to test the nightly build of their iSCSI target firmware. Using the resulting test summary table which labels each test in the requested suite as passed; failed, questionable or not testable, users of the API can easily track bugs and make changes accordingly until desired results are achieved.

Official API documentation is available to members through the existing web interface of the Remote Tester.

As the Remote iSCSI Target Tester and Remote iSCSI Target Tester Web API increase in popularity among member companies, the iSCSI consortium encourages feedback regarding the usefulness of our tools. This feedback helps us to improve our test tools and stay true to our mission to foster multivendor interoperability, conformance to standards, and improvement of data networking.

For more information on Remote iSCSI Target Tester and iSCSI testing services, please follow this link to the iSCSI Consortium.