Malcolm-Test

Malcolm-Test serves to run an instance of Malcolm and verifying the results of system tests executed against it. It consists mostly of a control script, TOML files containing provisioning steps for virtual machine creation, and the test files themselves. See this issue in the Malcolm repository for the discussion leading up to its creation.

This project makes use of:

• Virter for the creation and execution of libvirt-based virtual machines running Malcolm
• pytest for the testing framework

Package source highlights (under src/maltest)

• 🐍 maltest.py - A Python script for running Malcolm in a VM with virter (see below)
• 🗁 virter/ - A directory structure containing TOML files for provisioning the virter VMs in which Malcolm will run. Its subdirectories are arranged thusly:
  • 🗁 debian-12/ - A directory matching the name of the virter image (supplied to maltest.py with the -i/--image argument)
    • 🗁 init/ - TOML files for the initial steps of provisioning the OS (before setting up and starting Malcolm)
    • 🗁 fini/ - TOML files for the final stages of provisioning the OS (after shutting down Malcolm)
  • 🗁 malcolm-init/ - Distribution-agnostic provisioning TOML files for setting up Malcolm prior to starting it
  • 🗁 malcolm-fini/ - Distribution-agnostic provisioning TOML files for tearing down Malcolm after tests are complete
• 🗁 tests/ - A directory structure containing the test definitions, built using the pytest framework

Installation

Using pip, to install the latest release from PyPI:

python3 -m pip install -U malcolm-test

Or to install directly from GitHub:

python3 -m pip install -U 'git+https://github.com/idaholab/Malcolm-Test'

The malcolm-test script

maltest.py is a Python script for Linux that uses virter (a command line tool for simple creation and cloning of virtual machines) to run an instance of Malcolm against which automated system tests can be run.

When installed via pip, this script may be executed as malcolm-test from the Linux command line.

Usage

usage: maltest.py <arguments>

See README.md for usage details.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --verbose, -v         Increase verbosity (e.g., -v, -vv, etc.)
  -r [true|false], --rm [true|false]
                        Remove virtual Malcolm instance after execution is complete

Malcolm Git repo:
  -g <string>, --github-url <string>
                        Malcolm repository url (e.g., https://github.com/idaholab/Malcolm)
  -b <string>, --github-branch <string>
                        Malcolm repository branch (e.g., main)

Virtual machine specifications:
  -c <integer>, --cpus <integer>
                        Number of CPUs for virtual Malcolm instance
  -m <integer>, --memory <integer>
                        System memory (GB) for virtual Malcolm instance
  -d <integer>, --disk <integer>
                        Disk size (GB) for virtual Malcolm instance
  -i <string>, --image <string>
                        Malcolm virtual instance base image name (e.g., debian-12)
  --image-user <string>
                        Malcolm virtual instance base image username (e.g., debian)
  --vm-name-prefix <string>
                        Prefix for Malcolm VM name (e.g., malcolm)
  --existing-vm <string>
                        Name of an existing virter VM to use rather than starting up a new one
  --vm-provision [true|false]
                        Perform VM provisioning
  --vm-provision-malcolm [true|false]
                        Perform VM provisioning (Malcolm-specific)
  --vm-provision-path <string>
                        Path containing subdirectories with TOML files for VM provisioning (e.g., /home/tlacuache/.asdf/installs/python/3.12.7/lib/python3.12/site-packages/maltest/virter)
  --build-vm <string>   The name for a new VM image to build and commit instead of running one
  --build-vm-keep-layers [true|false]
                        Don't remove intermediate layers when building a new VM image

Malcolm runtime configuration:
  --container-image-file <string>
                        Malcolm container images .tar.xz file for installation (instead of "docker pull")
  -s [true|false], --start [true|false]
                        Start Malcolm once provisioning is complete (default true)
  --sleep <integer>     Seconds to sleep after init before starting Malcolm (default 30)

Example

with INFO-level -vv verbosity, output reduced for length

2024-10-25 12:42:51 INFO: /home/user/Malcolm-Test/maltest.py
2024-10-25 12:42:51 INFO: Arguments: ['-vv', '--rm', '--github-url', 'https://github.com/idaholab/Malcolm', '--github-branch', 'main']
2024-10-25 12:42:51 INFO: Arguments: Namespace(verbose=20, removeAfterExec=True, repoUrl='https://github.com/idaholab/Malcolm', repoBranch='main', vmCpuCount=8, vmMemoryGigabytes=31, vmDiskGigabytes=64, vmImage='debian-12', vmImageUsername='debian', vmNamePrefix='malcolm', vmExistingName='', vmProvision=True, vmProvisionPath='/home/user/Malcolm-Test/virter', containerImageFile='', startMalcolm=True, postInitSleep=30)
2024-10-25 12:42:51 INFO: ['virter', 'vm', 'run', 'debian-12', '--id', '0', '--name', 'malcolm-126', '--vcpus', '8', '--memory', '31GB', '--bootcapacity', '64GB', '--user', 'debian', '--wait-ssh']
2024-10-25 12:43:04 INFO: malcolm-126
2024-10-25 12:43:04 INFO: ['virter', 'vm', 'exec', 'malcolm-126', '--provision', '/home/user/Malcolm-Test/virter/debian-12/init/00-apt-init.toml', '--set', 'env.VERBOSE=false', '--set', 'env.REPO_URL=https://github.com/idaholab/Malcolm', '--set', 'env.REPO_BRANCH=main']
2024-10-25 12:44:27 INFO: malcolm-126 out: Linux malcolm-126 6.1.0-26-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.112-1 (2024-09-30) x86_64
…
2024-10-25 12:44:27 INFO: malcolm-126 out: Installing system packages...
…
2024-10-25 13:03:37 INFO: malcolm-126 out: Pulling Malcolm container images...
…
2024-10-25 13:05:11 INFO: malcolm-126 out: Waiting for Malcolm to become ready...
2024-10-25 13:06:34 INFO: Malcolm is started and ready to process data