Pavilion 2 Feature Additions [Slides]
Pavilion 2 is a critical component of system testing for LANL HPC systems. Pavilion 2 is system independent, which allows for the creation of a large suite of generalized tests than can be applied to multiple systems. These additions to Pavilion 2 improve our ability to test systems and diagnose issues. With such a large suite, running the proper tests when diagnosing and fixing a system can be difficult, as well as locating old tests for reference. Test configurations may contain several permutations of a test, not all of which may apply to a given system. The ability to run sets of test permutations lets the tester focus on specific parts of the test without having to edit the test configurations or run extraneous tests. The addition of the filter argument improves the ability to find test results based on test attributes, including past tests. Pavilion 2's system independence is largely based on various layers of configuration files. Configuration files for the host, test, and modes exist to allow generalized testing. The operating system configuration layer can provide helpful OS defaults to a test. Survey, a collection and reporting tool, can help us gauge the performance of a system as well as diagnose issues. The addition of a Survey mode in Pavilion 2 makes running tests with Survey very straightforward. The Survey results are combined with Pavilion 2's test results to make it easy to access.