OSDL beefs up Linux kernel testing

The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) has upgraded its enterprise-grade testing services for the Linux kernel, with a new release of its Scalable Test Platform (STP).

Version 3.0 of the STP set of suites aims to broaden the range of features to help developers simulate real-world datacentre environments on the Linux kernel, and see the impact of different workloads on open source databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL and SAPDb.

OSDL said that STP enables enterprises to test patches and company-specific Linux systems for stability and performance prior to production deployment.

Developers and OSDL testers used STP during the transition development phase of the kernel from 2.5 to the production 2.6 release at the end of 2003, performing more than 1,000 kernel tests on average each month.

The Linux consortium said that since then its lab has run more than 10,000 additional tests on the 2.6 prodcuction kernel.

Andrew Morton, lead maintainer of the production Linux kernel, said in a statement: "The STP was helpful to us in delivering a stable 2.6 kernel at the first release. Any developer or organisation working around the kernel will find this a useful tool."

With the 3.0 release, STP can test applications such as Postgres and sysstat with the kernel.

Testing of new process architectures is also now possible. The addition of cross-compile filters adds support for testing against the PPC, PPC64, Sparc, Sparc64, x86_64 and Alpha chip architectures. And an improved search tool makes it much faster and easier to research and retrieve archived test results.

STP is available online and free of charge to qualified developers, through the OSDL website.