What is LAVA?

LAVA is the Linaro Automation and Validation Architecture.

LAVA is a continuous integration system for deploying operating systems onto physical and virtual hardware for running tests. Tests can be simple boot testing, bootloader testing and system level testing, although extra hardware may be required for some system tests. Results are tracked over time and data can be exported for further analysis.

LAVA is a collection of participating components in an evolving architecture. LAVA aims to make systematic, automatic and manual quality control more approachable for projects of all sizes.

LAVA is designed for validation during development - testing whether the code that engineers are producing “works”, in whatever sense that means. Depending on context, this could be many things, for example:

  • testing whether changes in the Linux kernel compile and boot
  • testing whether the code produced by gcc is smaller or faster
  • testing whether a kernel scheduler change reduces power consumption for a certain workload
  • etc.

LAVA is good for automated validation. LAVA tests the Linux kernel on a range of supported boards every day. LAVA tests proposed android changes in gerrit before they are landed, and does the same for other projects like gcc. Linaro runs a central validation lab in Cambridge, containing racks full of computers supplied by Linaro members and the necessary infrastucture to control them (servers, serial console servers, network switches etc.)

LAVA is good for providing developers with the ability to run customised test on a variety of different types of hardware, some of which may be difficult to obtain or integrate. Although LAVA has support for emulation (based on QEMU), LAVA is best at providing test support for real hardware devices.

LAVA is principally aimed at testing changes made by developers across multiple hardware platforms to aid portability and encourage multi-platform development. Systems which are already platform independent or which have been optimised for production may not necessarily be able to be tested in LAVA or may provide no overall gain.

Note

This overview document explains LAVA using http://validation.linaro.org/ which is the official production instance of LAVA hosted by Linaro. Where examples reference validation.linaro.org, replace with the fully qualified domain name of your LAVA instance.

What is LAVA not?

  • LAVA is not a set of tests - it is infrastructure to enable users to run their own tests. LAVA concentrates on providing a range of deployment methods and a range of boot methods. Once the login is complete, the test consists of whatever scripts the test writer chooses to execute in that environment.
  • LAVA is not a test lab - it is the software that can used in a test lab to control test devices.
  • LAVA is not a complete CI system - it is software that can form part of a CI loop. LAVA supports data extraction to make it easier to produce a frontend which is directly relevant to particular groups of developers.
  • LAVA is not a build farm - other tools need to be used to prepare binaries which can be passed to the device using LAVA.
  • LAVA is not a production test environment for hardware - LAVA is focused on developers and may require changes to the device or the software to enable automation. These changes are often unsuitable for production units. LAVA also expects that most devices will remain available for repeated testing rather than testing the software with a changing set of hardware.

See also

Continuous Integration which covers how LAVA relates to continuous integration (CI) and covers the consequences of what LAVA can and cannot do with particular emphasis on how automation itself can block some forms of testing.

Architecture

_images/arch-overview.png

LAVA installations consist of two primary components - a master and a worker. The master has all the code required to run a worker and can support multiple remote workers to increase the number of devices available on any one instance.

Elements of the master

  • web interface - apache and uwsgi interfacing with django as well as providing XML-RPC access and REST API.
  • database - postgresql, local to the master with no external access.
  • dispatcher-master daemon - controls messages from the master to the worker(s) using ZMQ.

Elements of the slave

  • lava-slave daemon - receives control messages from the master and sends logs and results to the master, optionally uses authentication and encryption using ZMQ.
  • dispatcher - the lava-dispatch process, started by the lava-slave when instructed to do so by the master. This process manages all the operations on the device under test, according to the job submission and device parameters sent by the master.
  • device under test. Note that all the configuration for how the dispatcher interacts with the device is sent from the server.

Features

  • Automated validation - designed for automated processes to create, submit and process results of test jobs to validate the development process.
  • Parallel scheduling - multiple test jobs run at the same time across multiple devices.
  • Multinode test jobs - test jobs can be run as a single group of tests involving multiple devices.
  • Hardware sharing - uncommon hardware is shared between disparate groups to maximise usage
  • Wide device coverage - a large number of types of device can be supported with instances ranging from one to more than a hundred devices available for test jobs.
  • Data export for customisation - transform the data using custom interfaces to make the validation output directly relevant to specific teams.
  • Privacy support - test jobs or types of device can be kept private to selected groups, individuals or teams.
  • Live result reporting - if a test job does fail, all results up to the point of failure are retained.
  • UNIX and Android test support - Test jobs can be run on systems running various UNIX flavours or using the Android Debug Bridge to interface with mobile devices.
  • Complex network testing - reconfigurable networking across multiple devices using multiple network interfaces.