Math is Pretty

Tomorrow, we’re going to be performing our first test of our testbed software. Testbed creates a distributed build of LINA for several different operating systems.

The code behind Testbed is intentionally simple with a master python script, a build script, a script to send results, two shell scripts to automate key exchange, and a star topology.

Testbed works by sending a virtual disk image of an operating system that we are testing to one of the remote computers in the testbed network. The host computer then boots the virtual disk using a virtual machine to start up the foreign operating system that we are testing. Next, the build script is sent to the foreign virtual operating system and LINA is built on that operating system.

Although simple, the appeal of Testbed is it’s ability to automate our builds and tests. It will enable us to scalably support new operating systems and radically increase our productivity in debugging LINA in new and existing environments.