FIXME - need to add many more terms here
Glossary of terms
[ 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
- The device dictionary holds data which is specific to one device within
a group of devices of the same device type. For example, the power control
commands which reference a single port number. The dictionary itself is a
key:value store within the LAVA server database which admins can modify
to set configuration values according 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.