scripting iTest 4.3 to work with TestCenter
Dear colleagues, I am currently running iTest 4.3 with TestCenter installed on the same machine. In the test case script, I have the following steps configured: **open** connection to the Spirent TestCenter **addStreamBlock** to the Spirent TestCenter **startStreamBlock** to the Spirent TestCenter These steps were originally created by capture, as suggested in the iTest help system. Now, when I try to execute the test case, the first step (open connection to the Spirent TestCenter) takes very long to execute (sometimes, around 15 minutes). I was wondering whether there was a way to open a connection with TestCenter without loading GUI at all. I wonder whether this is just a problem that I am observing or whether it is something that someone else ran into. In either case, I would like to learn whether there is a way to bypass GUI after the step capture was done and just talk directly to the TestCenter. Regards Marek
Hi Marek, The time it usually takes is at the open step, which involves the connecting to chassis, reserving the ports and loading the configuration. This time may vary, based on the status of the port, length of the configuration and network connectivity between your machine and chassis. When I say the status of port, when we release the ports either from STC or iTest, the ports goes to unavailable state for sometime (indicating its getting rebooted) and if the open step in iTest is trying to reserve the ports at this time, it would wait for the ports to completely come up (from unavailable to available state). When we replay the test case, the same steps is going to triggered at the open step. So there is no way we can bypass the GUI.
Thank you for the feedback - I discovered what the problem was at the end of the day. It seems that some other person was using TestCenter application at the same time and the chassis would get loaded with work and unresponsive for periods of time. When running tests during the night, the delay is acceptable.
Hi Marek, In-order to add the streamblocks and start the streamblocks, first we need to reserve the ports on the chassis. As we specify the chassis and ports on session and when we start test iTest would connect to chassis and reserve the ports. This process would take some time( clearing the ports, re-connecting them). But, it would not take 15 minutes. Once ports got connected and reserved other steps will be executed as per the step duration. Hope it helps on understanding the delay !! Regards, Venkat
Thank you, Venkat, The connection times that I am observing are very unpredictable - at times, it seems it goes through within the matter of 30-45 seconds, sometimes it takes at least 10 minutes. The connection between both devices is almost direct (goes through two Ethernet switches) so bandwidth is not an issue here. Also, it seems that the chassis hangs up frequently when accessed from within iTest. I had to reset it manually four times today during test cases. I do not observe this kind of problem when I connect directly via TestCenter application Marek
Continuing my adventure with TestCenter operated from under iTest platform, I came across a rather simple issue: I'd like to generate VLAN tagged frames. My "Frame config XML" contains currently the following data: I wonder what the XML would look like to an Ethernet II frame with one or two vlan tags, says C-tag (TPID 0x8100, VID 1000) and S-tag (TPID 0x88a8, VID 2000). I did not find that described in any detail in the iTest manual. My confusion is whether the VLAN tag is considered a PDU within Ethernet header, or something else. Not being able to preview XML syntax makes it hard to guess ... Thanks
Yes, the delay is seen sometimes but it mostly depends on the network. Because iTest needs to connect the STC chassis and reserve the ports. Actually, iTest - Spirent TestCenter session connects to the STC through several TCL API calls behind. STC GUI is never invoked directly inside iTest rather the seen GUI is internal to iTest design. You can enable TCL logs with respect to the STC session and in console view you can see the TCL commands that are executed. You can execute the STC API commands directly inside iTest with eval (STC session)actions. But you need to make sure to invoke proper STC API command :)
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