                          Systest    Help    File



                             starting systest

                  To start systest there are a couple  of  things
          to keep in mind. Systest needs to be run from a csh not
          sh. Systest can now run in one of two modes.  One  mode
          is  background  which means all of the configured tests
          run at the same time. This mode is the  most  stringent
          test.  The other mode is the foreground mode which runs
          the configured tests one at a time.  The  default  mode
          for  running  systest  with  the  systestrc file is the
          background mode. Systest can log any  console  messages
          and  report a bad status when they happen. But for this
          to work tty0 must be set up as the console and a  RS232
          cable  (with  pins  2  &  3  swapped) must be connected
          between tty0 and tty3. In addition the entries  in  the
          /etc/inittab file for tty0 and tty3 must be set to off.
          This will keep a UM from running on either the tty0  or
          tty3 port.

                              systestrc

             This file can be used to specify the tests that sys-
          test will run.  This takes  the place  of answering the 
          questions by hand.  Use the systestrc.ex as an example. 
          The lines that start with a  "#" are commented out.  To
          run the test on a particular line remove the "#".



                             aborting systest

                  There  are  two  different  ways  of   aborting
          systest.  If  systest is running in the foreground mode
          then just typing del will abort systest.  If systest is
          running  in  the  background mode then you must perform
          the following steps. Step one is to type control  z  to
          get a system prompt.  Once you get a system prompt type
          in 'kjobs'. This will kill the jobs that  were  started
          and  will  create the SYSDONE file which will allow the
          TESTBODY script to finish. When the system prompt comes
          back  again type in 'fg' which will bring TESTBODY back
          to the foreground. You must then wait for  the  systest
          completion  message  to appear. It can take a while for
          this message to appear depending on whether a long test
          was in process. If you want to stop these tests you can
          use control z to get a prompt again and then use ps and
          the kill command to get rid of these tests.



                                  systest

                  Shell script which performs actual System Test.
          The  test  begins  by clearing the logging ram and then
          reading the logging ram  to  check  for  soft  or  hard
          memory  errors. If there is a systestrc file it will be
          used to set up the test configuration.   If  the  first
          non  commented  line  of the systestrc file is the word
          'automode' then the only  prompting  will  be  for  the
          length  of time to run systest. If there is no automode
          line then  the  user  will  be  prompted  with  warning
          messages  about  how  to  set  up  the  system prior to
          starting systest. If there is no systestrc file systest
          will  prompt  the user with questions about which tests
          are to be included  in  the  test  configuration.   The
          first  question  that  systest  will ask you is "Do you
          want to run the standard configuration?  "  .   If  you
          answer  no then you enter an interactive sequence which
          will allow you to set up systest  for  your  particular
          needs.  The  questions  asked  during  this interactive
          sequence will include the default  answers  which  when
          used  will  give  you the standard configuration. After
          this the System Test banner will appear displaying  the
          current  version  number of the systest and the version
          number of the micro code  proms  loaded  on  the  Fetch
          board.  Following this a configuration list will appear
          which  shows  the   standard   configuration   or   the
          configuration  you created. Systest then prompts you to
          enter the amount of time you want  systest  to  run  in
          hours/minutes (default is 20 hours). The next few lines
          that appear display current time and end time.  Current
          time  is  the  time at which the current iteration of
          the main loop in systest began. It is  updated  at  the
          start of each new iteration. The end time is the time
          at  which  no  more  iteration  can  begin.  It   is
          dependent on the amount of time you entered for systest
          to run. Also a status is displayed which will tell  you
          if  something  has  failed  during  an iteration. The
          status is updated at the end of every iteration. Each
          test process that the main loop runs has it's own spool
          file associated with it. The test processes write error
          messages  to  these  spool  files.   At the end of each
          iteration of the main loop, each of these spool files
          is checked for error messages. Any error messages found
          are copied along with the time they occurred to a  file
          called  TESTSPOOL.  At  the end of systest a completion
          message is displayed. If the status  displayed  is  bad
          then  cat  TESTSPOOL  in  order to see what the failure
          was. If systest  is  running  in  foreground  mode  the
          current  time  should be within 10 to 20 minutes of the
          end time. If not this could indicate  that  the  system
          was  hung up during one of the iteration of the main
          loop.



                                  config

                  This program does the interactive sequence  for
          configuring    systest.    Creates    files   SPOOLIST,
          CONFIGLIST, and TESTBODY.



                                  spooler

                  This program with the option  INIT  clears  all
          the  spool  files  listed  in  SPOOLIST  plus it clears
          TESTSPOOL. With the  option  SPOOL  this  program  will
          check  all  the  spool  files  in  SPOOLIST  for  error
          messages and writes the messages it finds to  TESTSPOOL
          along with the time they occurred.



                                  systime

                  This program with the option START prompts  the
          user  for  the  amount  of time to run systest. It uses
          this to calculate end time and then stores it in a file
          called RUNTIME. With the option CHECK this program gets
          the current system time and then compares it to the end
          time.  If  the  current system time is greater than the
          end time then it will cause systest to stop. Also  with
          the  CHECK  option  the  current  time  and  status are
          updated.


































































