[Hwcert-announce-list] [Red Hat Partner Announcement] Red Hat v7 Hardware Test Suite v7-1.3-43 GA Package Available

[Rob Landry]

***************************************

Greetings Red Hat Worldwide Partners,

Red Hat is pleased to announce the general availability of the Red Hat 
v7 hardware test suite v7-1.3-43 for hardware certification purposes 
with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6.

The Red Hat v7 hardware test suite GA package (v7-1.3-43) is an official 
release and supersedes previous versions of v7. Although Red Hat 
strongly recommends that this v7 hardware test suite GA package be used 
for Red Hat Enterprise Linux certification submissions, vendors may 
continue to use the previous v7 hardware test suite (v7-1.2-25) for 
official certifications *already in progress* for a period of 90 days 
from this announcement.

The Red Hat v7 hardware test suite GA (v7-1.3-43) package now is 
available on the Red Hat Customer Portal (http://access.redhat.com) and 
at the following location:

ftp://partners.redhat.com/a166eabc5cf5df158922f9b06e5e7b21/hwcert/


Highlights of the GA version of the v7 hardware test suite (v7-1.3-43) 
include:

* In an effort to better support hardware control in RHEL6 and 
TurboBoost enabled processors, the cpuscaling test has been restructured 
to execute against a package instead of per core. Test planning for the 
cpuscaling test is impacted by this change; cpuscaling will schedule 
once per system instead of for each core.

* The network test now requires a server with a matching version of v7. 
For example, a system under test with v7-1.3 installed must be connected 
to a v7 server running v7-1.3 as well.

* The network test now uses http instead of nfs during the file transfer.

* A wireless test (wlan) has been added. The wlan test is designed to 
gather information for wireless devices. The network test continues as 
the functional (send/receive) test.

* The following changes have been introduced to kdump:

- Please note that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6(.x) now requires kdump 
testing on an integrated storage and network adapter using the reboot 
test in the v7 test suite. Although results are required to demonstrate 
proper test execution, kdump testing failures will *not* block Red Hat 
Enterprise Linux 6(.x) certifications. Red Hat expects to require 
successful passing of kdump tests as a condition for certification with 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2. Accordingly, please open kdump bugs as 
soon as possible for resolution in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2. (This 
is an updated policy change. Red Hat had originally provided guidance to 
partners in September 2010 that successful passing of kdump tests would 
be required for certification in Q1 CY2011.)

- The kdump test in network mode now requires a v7 server.

- The kdump test now uses dump level 31 to reduce the vmcore capture 
size and time.

- The kdump test will now also do a validation litmus test on the 
storage and network based vmcore.

* The reboot test is now scheduled twice by default (for storage and 
network) when kdump is enabled.

* The reboot test time limit is now configurable in /etc/v7.xml. The 
default is 10 minutes. This 10-minute limit has been tested on systems 
with up to 128GB of memory, but may need to be increased on larger 
systems. The time limit is configured with a line similar to the following:

 <time-limits fv-guest-timelimit='60' reboot-timelimit='10'/>

* The floppy drive test is deprecated and has been removed from the v7 
package.

* v7 will now prompt the user to submit results before reaching the 
results size threshold.

Filing Bugzillas:

The v7-1.3-43 hardware test suite package has been verified against 
RHEL6 and RHEL5 on the x86, x86_64, ppc64, and s390x architectures. If 
you encounter any problems, please file bugs against the 'Red Hat 
Hardware Certification Program' product in Red Hat Bugzilla 
(https://bugzilla.redhat.com).

Changelog between v7-1.3-35 and v7-1.3-43:

641157 - Fencing test gives result of AUTO when run, instead of PASS or 
FAIL
676239 - v7 Coverage for loading Tech Preview device drivers in RHEL6.1
679011 - fencing test fail on v7-1.3-10
698463 - network test is killed on s390x
690797 - Some test parameters should be moved to v7's configuration file
698984 - v7 sets /var/v7/store as world-writeable
701621 - suspend test failed on RHEL6


Known Issues list for v7-1.3-43:

524983 - v7 Network server blocked from working by SELinux
701939 - ia64 fv_storage guest fail
702168 - v7-1.3-35 Hardware Test Suite: v7 server requires fence-agents rpm
702491 - V7 1.2.x and 1.3.x fail to add expresscard tests to plan
702695 - v7-1.3-35 v7 server requires python-lxml


Red Hat values your ongoing participation and testing in the Red Hat 
Enterprise Linux development, testing, and certifications efforts. Thank 
you for your continued partnership. If you have any questions or 
comments, please do not hesitate to contact your Partner Manager or
Technical Account Manager.

Regards,

The Red Hat Hardware Certification Team