Version: Next

Creating Netkit Test Labs

Each test in our testing suite has a configuration file and a lab folder associated with it. Here is an example config:

NAME=ABR Lab
DESCRIPTION=Simple lab with two machines joined by a router.
LAB_FOLDER=abr
LAB_TIMEOUT=90
FILES=ping_successful_a,ping_successful_b
FILES_TIMEOUT=90

A list of possible configuration settings can be found below.

Name	Description	Required / Optional
NAME	A human readable name of the test.	Required
DESCRIPTION	A description of the test.	Required
LAB_FOLDER	The folder that contains the lab files for the test.	Required
LAB_TIMEOUT	Number of seconds to wait for lstart to finish before marking the test as failed.	Required
FILES	A list of comma seperated file names that indicate a test has been successful.	Required
FILES_TIMEOUT	Number of seconds to wait for all files listed in FILES to exist before marking the test as failed.	Required
TERMINAL	A specific terminal emulator to use for this test.	Optional - defaults to user's terminal defined in netkit.conf

Inside the lab folders, a systemd service named netkit-validation.service is used to automatically execute a test script (usually found at /root/test.sh). This test script is responsible for creating one/many of the files listed in the FILES configuration. Here's an example of one below, which repeatedly pings a machine until it responds. Once it responds, it creates the ping_successful_a file inside the /hostlab directory.

#!/bin/bash

# Repeatedly attempt to ping until successful
while true; do
    if ping -c 1 200.0.0.1; then
        touch /hostlab/ping_successful_a
        exit 0;
    fi
done

To create your own test, firstly create a configuration file inside tests/configs. The number at the front indicates the order in which the tests are ran (please select your number appropiately!) Make sure to configure all required options.

Create a lab folder inside tests/labs/LAB_FOLDER where LAB_FOLDER is the value of LAB_FOLDER inside your config file.

Configure your machines and test scripts so that your FILES are created when the test is successful. We recommend looking at the ABR lab as a basis for your test.

tip

Keep your tests as simple as possible!