SVR5, SCO OpenServer 5, AIX 5L, Linux-32, and Linux-64

plt(1Mcert)

plt -- platform load tests

Synopsis

   $PLT_HOME/plt

$PLT_HOME is the top of the directory tree where the executable and log files reside. Its location is:

/home/plt: SVR5 SCO OpenServer 5, and Linux
/driver/tests: AIX 5L

Description

plt is the interface to a suite of tests that exercise a computer system under a heavy load. These tests are used to qualify computer systems with the operating system and can also be used to test kernel sanity after new device drivers and other kernel-level code have been added.

Usage

The plt tests deliver output to xterm windows as they run, assuming that plt can successfully run an X program. Each xterm window has the name of the test in the title bar. All the test output is also written to logfiles that can be analyzed later; if plt cannot run an X program, it suppresses the screen output and merely logs the results to the files.

To run the plt tests:

Open an xterm window and execute the $PLT_HOME/plt command.
The tests display notices on the screen, ask for user input, and allow you to select the tests that will be run.
At the menu screen, execute the Balanced load tests option to run the tests that are required for certification.
You can instead select individual tests to run when testing during the development phase. The network tests are optional on all systems; the graphics tests are part of the Balanced load tests on AIX 5L but optional on SVR5, SCO OpenServer 5, and Linux systems. You can also select individual graphics tests (ICO, x11perf, or Maze) rather than running the full graphics suite.
When you select the Balanced load tests option, the system runs with a consistent but not onerous load. Selecting individual tests causes them to run unbounded. This may exhaust resources and cause spurious failures.
You will see the description string for the selected tests change to READY TO RUN.
Enter r to run the tests. You will be prompted for additional parameters that may be required for individual tests such as network and graphics.
Specify how long to run the tests in hours or minutes, or just press <Enter> to run the tests without a time limit.
For certification, these tests should run for 36-48 hours without errors to give reasonable confidence of system and driver sanity; specific requirements will be specified in the certification agreement. Shorter runs may be useful for testing during the development process.
Insert a scratch floppy disk and an unmounted CD-ROM in the appropriate drives and press <Enter>. plt displays the actual command with options to be run and begins the tests.
If you do not insert the media before starting the tests, you will be prompted to insert them and can do so while the test is running; the test suites will recognize when they are available.
As the tests are running, the output from each test is displayed in xterm windows that contain the name of the test in the title bar. Error information is written to files in the log directory.
Press <Esc> to terminate test execution before the time slice specified expires. It may take several minutes for the system to respond; please be patient.
The pltanalyze command that checks the test results summary is called at the end of the test run. It may, however, report spurious errors because tests have not yet written the final information into their log files. pltanalyze can be run manually:
```
   # cd $PLT_HOME
   # ./pltanalyze
   
   cdrom test:		SUCCESS
   cpu test:		SUCCESS
   disk test:		SUCCESS
   floppy test:		SUCCESS
   memory test:		SUCCESS
   network test:		NOT TESTED
   graphics test:		SUCCESS	
   #
```
If any of the tests report FAIL, view the details in the appropriate file in the $PLT_HOME/log directory. After you correct the problem, rerun the entire Balanced load tests suite, not just the test that failed. Tests that were not part of the test run are marked NOT TESTED.
The log files may contain status messages that do not indicate failures in the tests.

The tests write a timestamp to the $PLT_HOME/log/sleepy file once every five minutes. Should the test suite fail, or should the system hang or panic, subtracting the first timestamp from the last timestamp will provide the elapsed time the tests ran. The last timestamp in this file determines the date and time at which there was a failure.

Test groups

These test suites contain several tests groups, described below. A log file is created for each test group in the $PLT_HOME/log directory.

memory

Creates a very large working set of memory pages and randomly accesses them. These tests autoscale to handle large and small memory configurations appropriately.

cpu

Tests the floating point calculations by using the sin( ), exp( ), log( ), atan( ), and cos( ) routines. The test suite determines the number of configured CPUs and forks at least one test per CPU, but relies on the operating system to force execution on all configured CPUs.

disk

Writes large and small files in different modes, creates and deletes files and links, executes various filesystem operations to exercise the hardware. The individual tests that are executed are in the $PLT_HOME/disktests directory.

For SVR5, additional disk tests are provided in the hbacert(1Mcert) test suites. For SCO OpenServer 5, additional disk tests are provided in the O5hbacert(1Mcert) test suites. No additional disk tests are available for AIX 5L.

floppy

A continuous format and dd(1M) loop is executed to the floppy disk.

cdrom

Recursive ls(1) and find(1) commands are executed to exercise the CD-ROM subsystem.

For SVR5, additional CD-ROM tests are provided in the hbacert(1Mcert) test suites. For SCO OpenServer 5, additional CD-ROM tests are provided in the O5hbacert(1Mcert) test suites. No additional CD-ROM tests are available for AIX 5L.

graphics

Three graphics tests are provided, which can be run individually:

ICO: Displays a wire frame rotating icosahdron. The test ensures that the client refreshes its contents and redraws the image correctly under a variety of conditions.
x11perf: Runs the standard X Window performance benchmarks and reports statistics on server performance.
Note that the x11perf test does not currently run well under SVR5 and SCO OpenServer 5, although it does not cause any harm. The x11perf(1Mcert) test is best run under the RunTests(1Mcert) test harness on SVR5 and SCO OpenServer 5. These and other test suites for the graphical subsystem are provided as part of the xtests package for SVR5 and SCO OpenServer 5; we recommend running these tests directly rather than as part of the plt tests on these platforms.
Maze: An automated X11 demo that repeatedly creates and solves a random maze.

The graphics tests are part of the AIX 5L Balanced Load Tests but must be manually selected for SVR5 and SCO OpenServer 5.

network

Continuously executes ftp commands. The individual tests that are executed are in the $PLT_HOME/net directory.

For SVR5, additional network card tests are provided in the ndtests(1Mcert) test suites. For SCO OpenServer 5, additional network card tests are provided in the ant(1Mcert) test suites. No additional network card tests are available for AIX 5L.

Note that the network test suite is not currently included in the set of required tests executed for Balanced load tests, so you will need to request it separately.

sar_p

Runs sar reports and logs the results. This along with the sleepy script are ``watchdogs'' that track activity and can be used to identify when a test failed.

Version applicability

These tests are supported for all releases of SVR5, AIX 5L, and SCO OpenServer 5. They have also been ported to Linux-32 and Linux-64 although they are not yet productized for Linux platforms.

plt uses common source for all platforms.

Differences between versions

Earlier versions of the plt suite were provided for SCO OpenServer 5 as hcp(1Mcert) and for SVR5 as loadtests(1Mcert). Those versions are obsoleted for all releases of all SCO operating systems by this plt.

The major new features for the plt suites are:

Ability to specify how long to run the tests, rather than having them run continuously until they are manually stopped.
Autoscaling to handle large memory and disk configurations.
The test output is written to xterm windows rather than to virtual terminals or multiscreens as used for earlier versions of the tests.
Addition of tests for the graphics subsystem.
Common source code for tests on all platforms.
Logging of sar data during the test run.
Watchdog processes run every five minutes rather than every minute as in earlier versions.
The pltanalyze command produces a summary of the each test run at the end of the run or can be run manually. This quickly identifies any test failures, which can then be analyzed by studing the appropriate log files.
All log and summary files from a plt run are moved to a logs.<n> directory when a subsequent plt run is executed. This enables you to compare successive runs of the test suites.

Files

The files and directories listed with a relative pathname are created under the plt's home directory, referred to as $PLT_HOME:

/home/plt directory: SVR5, SCO OpenServer 5, and Linux
/driver/tests/plt: AIX 5L

Note that there is no actual plt user.

plt: The test script. This can be run only as ``root''.
pltanalyze: Script to print summary of test results. This script gives a quick view of whether the tests succeeded or failed.
log/sleepy: Contains timestamps. The data and time is written to this file once every five minutes while the tests are running.
doc/bulletin: Bulletin that must be completed and sent to your authorized SCO or IBM representative to begin the process of getting your system or driver listed in the Compatible Hardware Web Pages (CHWP).
log/*: Log files generated by the most recent run of the plt tests.
logs/*.<n>: Log files and TEST_RESULT files from previous plt runs. <n> is an incrementing number.
tests/cdrom: CD-ROM test scripts.
tests/cpu: CPU tests.
tests/disk: Disk subsystem tests. This is the front-end script that runs the individual tests in the disktests directory.
tests/disktests/*: Individual tests run to exercise the disk subsystem.
tests/floppy: Floppy tests.
tests/graphicstests/*: Individual tests run to exercise the graphics subsystem.
tests/memory: Memory subsystem tests.
tests/net/*: Individual tests run to exercise the networking subsystem.
tests/network: Nework subsystem tests. This is the front-end script that runs the individual tests in the net directory.
tests/sar_p: Watchdog script that writes the sar output every five minutes.
tests/sleepy: Watchdog script that writes the time and datestamp every five minutes.
TEST_RESULTS: Contains information about the most recent execution of the plt tests. Information recorded includes the time the test run started and stopped, the duration of the run, the tests that were run, and the pltanalyze output.
Each successive plt run moves this file and the contents of the log directory into a new logs.<n> directory so that each test run begins with empty directories and yet the results of previous test runs is available for comparison.

Examples

The output of the most recent pltanalyze execution along with other information about the test run is stored in the $PLT_HOME/TEST_RESULTS file. An example of this file for SCO OpenServer 5 follows; similar output is provided on SVR5 and AIX 5L.

# cat TEST_RESULTS

SCO Platform Load Tests 8.8 on OSR5 started at Tue Jan 23 15:01:50 PST 2001

SCO_SV rafiki 3.2 5.0.6 i386

Starting Disk Load Tests: /home/plt/tests/disk OSR5 gentle Starting Floppy Load Tests: /home/plt/tests/floppy OSR5 Starting CPU Load Test 1: /home/plt/tests/cpu gentle Starting CD-ROM Load Tests: /home/plt/tests/cdrom OSR5 Starting Memory Load Tests: /home/plt/tests/memory -a 30 -m 133697536

SCO Platform Load Tests ended at Tue Jan 23 15:02:50 PST 2001

Test duration was 60 seconds

LOG FILE ANALYSIS

cdrom test: SUCCESS cpu test: SUCCESS disk test: SUCCESS floppy test: SUCCESS memory test: SUCCESS network test: NOT TESTED graphics test: NOT TESTED

PLT was SUCCESSFUL.

If you ran this test for SCO Certification, fill out the /home/plt/doc/bulletin file, and email it to your SCO representative, along with the /home/plt/send_me_to_sco.uue file.