RST Test Servers

Initially, RSTPublicTests and DistributedRST unconditionally targetted only the Solaris 8 CPU servers. However, with an explosion of server families and types and no clear way to list all servers in an arbitrary specific "category", it has become necessary to require course accounts to specify explicitly which servers are acceptable for testing, particularly given the diversity of software selections between server families.

This is accomplished with the test_servers option in .rstrc; see the rstrc man page for details about other available configuration options.

For Spring 2014, you can use: test_servers=( ubuntu1204-004 ubuntu1204-006 )

In Spring 2010, the server family used by most courses is expected to be Ubuntu 9.10. As new servers are added and old servers are removed, the server_list file logging servers to be used for the public tests runners on the isg account will also need to be updated by an ISC. It is the hope that in the future, this file can simply contain active families of servers; for example,

cpu-solaris.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca
linux-test.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca
linux-legacy.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca

However, as of Fall 2010, the necessary infrastructure to accomodate this is not yet in place. See CSCF's host list for up-to-date information about available servers.

As of Fall 2010, a course targetting the Ubuntu 9.10 family should have the following .rstrc entry:

test_servers=( linux008.student.cs linux012.student.cs linux016.student.cs mef-linux014.student.cs mef-linux018.student.cs mef-linux000.student.cs mef-linux002.student.cs mef-linux010.student.cs )

and a course targetting the Solaris 8 family should have the following .rstrc entry:

test_servers=( cpu04.student.cs cpu08.student.cs cpu10.student.cs cpu12.student.cs cpu14.student.cs cpu16.student.cs cpu18.student.cs )

Important note: The servers must be identified by canonical names for everything to work correctly (in particular, the public tests). Make sure every server name in this list is what that server would identify itself as via the hostname command. It is especially important that you do not specify any round-robin server aliases here.

In the future, the use of round-robin servers will be encouraged and the individual naming will be phased out, as will the requirement for canonical names. Then, a course would just target a server family; for example,

test_servers=( linux-test.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca )

Note that this cannot yet be done; as of Fall 2010, the necessary infrastructure to accomodate this is not yet in place.