FIXME - need to add many more terms here

Glossary of termsΒΆ

[ action level ] [ device dictionary ] [ device group ] [ device owner ] [device status transition ] [ device tag ][ device type ] [ dispatcher ] [ distributed deployment] [ DUT ] [ exclusive ] [ frontend ] [ health check ] [hidden device type ] [ hostname ] [ inline ] [ interface tag ] [ messageID ] [ MultiNode ] [ job definition ] [ offline ] [ pipeline ] [ PDU ][ physical access ] [ priority ] [ refactoring ] [ results ] [ remote worker] [ restricted device ] [ retired ] [ role ] [ rootfs ] [ rootfstype ] [ VLANd ] [ ZMQ ]

action level
The pipeline is organised into sections and levels. The first section of the pipeline is given level 1. Sub tasks of that section start with level 1.1 and so on. Log files and job definitions will refer to actions using the level, e.g. to download the boot log of a job, the link will include the job ID, the action name and action level. e.g. job/8360/download/2.4.5-auto-login-action.log - job ID 8360, action level 2.4.5, action name auto-login-action. (The keyword download is used to separate the jobID from the action level.) Details of the action can then be accessed as: job/8360/definition#2.4.5 See also Pipeline construction and flow
device dictionary
A key:value store within the LAVA server database which admins can modify to set configuration values for specific devices, specific to the pipeline design. See Creating a device dictionary for the device and Viewing current device dictionary content.
device group
A set of devices, defined in the JSON of an individual test job, which will run as a single group of tests within LAVA. Only devices within the group will be able to use the MultiNode API to communicate between devices.
device owner
A device owner has permission to change the status of a particular device and update the free text description of a device. Note that superusers of the LAVA instance are always able to submit jobs to and administer any devices on that instance. See also Device ownership information and Administrative controls.
device status transition
A record of when a device changed Device status, who caused the transition, when the transition took place as well as any message assigned to the transition. Individual transitions can be viewed in LAVA at <server>scheduler/transition/<ID> where the ID is a sequential integer. If the transition was caused by a job, this view will link to that job.
device tag
A tag is a device specific label which describes specific hardware capabilities of this specific device. Test jobs using tags will fail if no suitable devices exist matching the requested device tag or tags. Tags are typically used when only a proportion of the devices of the specified type have hardware support for a particular feature, possibly because those devices have peripheral hardware connected or enabled. A device tag can only be created or assigned to a particular device by a lab admin. When requesting tags, remember to include a description of what the tagged device can provide to a Test Job.
device type
The common type of a number of devices in LAVA. The device type may have a health check defined. Devices with the same device type will run the same health check at regular intervals. See Identifying device types.
dispatcher
A server to which multiple devices are connected. The dispatcher has lava-dispatcher installed and passes the commands to the device and other processes involved in running the LAVA test. A dispatcher does not need to be at the same location as the server which runs the scheduler. [2]
distributed deployment
A method of installing LAVA such that the load of running tests on devices is spread across multiple machines (dispatchers) which each act as a remote worker with a single machine providing the web frontend, master scheduler and database connection. The design of the worker is changing drastically in the refactoring. [2]
DUT
Device Under Test - a quick way to refer to the device in LAVA.
exclusive

The refactoring and the consequent migration means that devices can have three states:

  • JSON only - current dispatcher jobs, pipeline jobs rejected.
  • JSON and Pipeline support - both models supported.
  • Pipeline only - JSON submissions would be rejected.

If the device is marked as pipeline in the admin interface and has a device dictionary, that device can support pipeline submissions. If the device dictionary marks the device as exclusive, then the device can only support pipeline submissions:

{% set exclusive = "True" %}

The state of the device is indicated in the device type and device detail pages. Accepted submissions are marked with a tick, rejected submissions marked with a cross. See also Device ownership information.

Exclusive devices are intended to allow admins and developers to make changes in the refactoring without being limited by having to retain compatibility with the current dispatcher, e.g. to update the bootloader, to support new devices not supported by the current dispatcher at all or to indicate that the devices have completed a migration to the pipeline and prevent users mistakenly submitting old jobs.

It is recommended to have pipeline support for all devices of the relevant device type before enabling exclusive pipeline support, especially if the device type has a Pipeline YAML health checks

frontend

lava-server provides a generic frontend consisting of the Results, Queries, Job tables, Device tables and Charts. Many projects will need to customise this data to make it directly relevant to the developers. This is supported using the XML-RPC and REST API support.

hacking session
A test job which uses a particular type of test definition to allow users to connect to a test device and interact with the test environment directly. Normally implemented by installing and enabling an SSH daemon inside the test image. Not all devices can support hacking sessions. See LAVA Hacking Sessions.
health check
A test job for one specific device type which is automatically run at regular intervals to ensure that the physical device is capable of performing the minimum range of tasks. If the health check fails on a particular device of the specified device type, LAVA will automatically put that device Offline. See Writing Health Checks for device types. Health checks have higher priority than any other jobs.
hidden device type
A device type can be hidden by the LAVA administrators. Devices of a Hidden device type will only be visible to owners of at least once device of this type. Other users will not be able to access the job output, device status transition pages or bundle streams of devices of a hidden type. Devices of a hidden type will be shown as Unavailable in tables of test jobs and omitted from tables of devices and device types if the user viewing the table does not own any devices of the hidden type.
hostname
The unique name of this device in this LAVA instance, used to link all jobs, results and device information to a specific device configuration.
inline
A type of test definition which is contained within the job submission instead of being fetched from a URL. These are useful for debugging tests and are recommended for the synchronisation support within multinode test jobs. See Using inline test definitions
interface tag
An interface tag is similar to device tag but operate solely within the VLANd support. An interface tag may be related to the link speed which is achievable on a particular switch and port - it may also embed information about that link. See VLANd and interface tags in LAVA.
job definition
The original JSON submitted to create a job in LAVA is retained in the database and can be viewed directly from the job log. Although the JSON is the same, the YAML may well have changed since the job was submitted, so some care is required when modifying job definitions from old jobs to make a new submission. If the job was a MultiNode job, the MultiNode definition will be the unchanged JSON from the original submission; the job definition will be the parsed JSON for this particular device within the MultiNode job. [2]
messageID
Each message sent using the MultiNode API uses a messageID which is a string, unique within the group. It is recommended to make these strings descriptive using underscores instead of spaces. The messageID will be included the the log files of the test.
MultiNode
A single test job which runs across multiple devices. See MultiNode API.
offline
A status of a device which allows jobs to be submitted and reserved for the device but where the jobs will not start to run until the device is online. Devices enter the offline state when a health check fails on that device or the administrator puts the device offline.
PDU
Power Distribution Unit - a network-controlled set of relays which allow the power to the devices to be turned off and on remotely. Certain PDUs are supported by lavapdu-daemon to be able to hard reset devices in LAVA.
physical access
The user or group with physical access to the device, for example to fix a broken SD card or check for possible problems with physical connections. The user or group with physical access is recommended to be one of the superusers.
pipeline
Within LAVA, the pipeline is the new model for the dispatcher code as part of the refactoring where submitted jobs are converted to a pipeline of discrete actions - each pipeline is specific to the structure of that submission and the entire pipeline is validated before the job starts. The model integrates concepts like fail-early, error identification, avoid defaults, fail and diagnose later, as well as giving test writers more rope to make LAVA more transparent. See Lava Dispatcher Design and Refactoring Use Cases.
priority
A job has a default priority of Medium. This means that the job will be scheduled according to the submit time of the job, in a list of jobs of the same priority. Every health check has a higher priority than any submitted job and if a health check is required, it will always run before any other jobs. Priority only has any effect while the job is queued as Submitted.
remote worker
A dispatcher with devices attached which does not have a web frontend but which uses a connection to a remote lava-server to retrieve the list of jobs for supported boards. [2]
refactoring
Within LAVA, the process of developing the pipeline code in parallel with the existing code, resulting in new elements alongside old code - possibly disabled on some instances. See Lava Dispatcher Design and Refactoring Use Cases.
restricted device
A restricted device can only accept job submissions from the device owner. If the device owner is a group, all users in that group can submit jobs to the device.
results

Within the pipeline changes, a new lava_results_app replaces result bundle and stream and provides Query to replace filter. This code is in ongoing development but includes support for:

  • viewing results so far while the test job is still running
  • retaining results from earlier actions even if the test job fails later
  • allowing any action in the pipeline to generate results
  • linking results with metadata from the test job
  • all results are referenced solely using the test job ID, not hashes or dates.

Queries will provide replacement functionality for the deprecated filter support, allowing queries to mix results and metadata.

retired
A device is retired when it can no longer be used by LAVA. A retired device allows historical data to be retained in the database, including log files, result bundles and state transitions. Devices can also be retired when the device is moved from one instance to another.
role
An arbitrary label used in MultiNode tests to determine which tests are run on the devices and inside the YAML to determine how the devices communicate.
rootfs
A tarball for the root file system.
rootfstype
Filesystem type for the root filesystem, e.g. ext2, ext3, ext4.
test run
The result from a single test definition execution. The individual id and result of a single test within a test run is called the Test Case. [2]
tftp
Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is a file transfer protocol, mainly to serve boot images over the network to other machines (PXE). The protocol is managed by the tftpd-hpa package and not by LAVA directly. See TFTP support requirement.
VLANd
VLANd is a daemon to support virtual local area networks in LAVA. This support is specialised and requires careful configuration of the entire LAVA instance, including the physical layout of the switches and the devices of that instance. See VLANd support in LAVA test jobs or Administering VLANd support in LAVA.
ZMQ
Zero MQ (or 0MQ) is the basis of the refactoring to solve a lot of the problems inherent in the distributed_instance. The detail of this change is only relevant to developers but it allows LAVA to remove the need for postgresql and sshfs connections between the master and remote workers. It allows remote workers to no longer need lava-server to be installed on the worker. Developers can find more information in the Lava Dispatcher Design documentation.
[1]These terms reflect objects and methods which will be removed after the migration to the new Lava Dispatcher Design.
[2](1, 2, 3, 4, 5) These items will be replaced in meaning or detail after the migration to the new Lava Dispatcher Design.