The Design And Implementation Of A BMC Automation Testing Framework

BMC(Baseboard Management Controller) is a firmware which is designed to monitor inner physical variables of a server. BMC is iteratively designed, so every BMC release should be verified by regression testing. To improve efficiency and save money, the companies should deploy automation tool to handle cyclic BMC regression testing in BMC development process. The software automation testing thesis is mature and automation testing tool is widely used after rapidly progress of software development and testing. However, there is not any mature automation tool for BMC testing, as it refers to hardware and bottom software testing of non-OS environment.This dissertation is based on a real project study of BMC automation testing framework, analyze mature automation framework module in software, and raise a hybrid automation testing framework based on data-driven and modularity. This framework is implemented and applied to BMC regression testing.The BMC automation testing system implement data-driven automation testing. According to the requirement, every BMC release on every server platform should be verified. So the server platforms and BMC versions are variables in testing. The data-driven testing put the variables into the system configure file. When the system starts, system read the values of the variables from configure file. Different values trigger different testing. The framework also create a lot of public configure files to store server hardware information, IPMI commands and other information required in testing procedure. The system read data from the public configure files when in testing. When platforms or BMC release change, we could edit the configure file to maintain the framework, this lower down expense on system maintenance.On the other hand, modularity testing is applied to the framework. The system abstract every device referred to BMC testing according to their physically relationship on a server, build the device into a tree structure which the parent node and child node could access each other. To a step in a testing case, the framework modularize the step and encapsulate into a function of a device which the step refers to. After modularizing, the BMC automation testing case script could be finished by calling functions of device.The framework also discusses the simplified script development method. Every testing case create a class file and implement testing steps. And the supper class of a case class implement case configuration and testing procedures. As a result, it’s easy to write a case script, even to a man who is not familiar with automation system.In addition, the framework uses the testing management to manage testing machines of multi-platforms and testing plan. So the system could execute different testing plans on every machine of multi-platforms.The framework runs stably. It could do multi-node testing by edit system configure file, which improve efficiency and save expense.