[Hwcert-announce-list] [Red Hat Partner Announcement] Updated Hardware Certification (HTS) packages available

[Rob Landry]

Greetings Red Hat Worldwide Partners,

Red Hat is pleased to announce the release of the Red Hat Enterprise
Linux Hardware Certification Test Suite (HTS) (hts-5.2-20), which may be
fully utilized for any valid RHEL 4.x or 5.x certifications. This
officially lifts the previous restrictions placed on the FTP Beta
preview release of the hts-5.2-20 package, and may now be downloaded via
Red Hat Network (http://rhn.redhat.com).

Red Hat has also posted a beta RHEL 5.3 HTS (hts-5.3-3) package at the 
following location:

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

NOTE: The beta HTS (hts-5.3-3) package is currently considered a preview
and should only be used for testing purposes, as such test results will 
be automatically rejected by the Hardware Catalog. The official HTS 
release (hts-5.2-20) should be used for all official certification 
testing submissions.

Partner testing of the hts-5.3-3 package is greatly appreciated, and 
should be tested on the RHEL 5.3 Beta as well on any older RHEL 5.x and
4.x releases. Please read the details below and file any bugs against
the 'Red Hat Hardware Certification Program' product in Bugzilla
(https://bugzilla.redhat.com) if you encounter any problems.

Red Hat is also pleased to announce the immediate availability of the
Red Hat Hardware Catalog website (http://hardware.redhat.com). This
release includes a new Certification Work Queues dialog.  The work queue
displays reviewer work queues assigned (bold), unassigned queues
(grayed out), and unqualified certifications (strike-through). The work
queues continue to include Specification Review, Results Package Review,
Leverage Validation, Pass-Through Verification, Dialog Response 
Requested, and Support Approval.  This dialog is to provide expectations
to vendors as to where certifications stand with regard to the work
remaining on Red Hat.  If an error is discovered in a work queue 
assignment, please add a comment to the certification stating the 
situation and ensuring to set the dialog as requesting information from 
the reviewer.

The catalog refresh also includes an update to the Test Plan Progress
dialog for more exact leverage tracking.  Existing certifications will
continue to utilize existing test plans through completion; new
certifications will use the new Test Plan form.  This new form requires
the use of TestIDs for leverage data, the old form uses CertIDs.  The
new form can be identified by the separation of 64 and 32-bit
requirements where as the old form has them side by side.  TestIDs can
be located in the Test Run dialog towards the lower portion of the
Review tab on a certification entry.



Beta Test Suite (hts-5.3-3) Release Notes:

The 'hts certify' command has been updated to include additional
automation.  The previous override behavior is provided in the new 'hts
run' command (e.g. 'hts run -t network').

The cpuscaling test is now scheduled and required to run per logical
core.  Starting with the launch of RHEL5.3, this test should be run
against kernel-xen where available, failures to pass using the
kernel-xen will not be certification blockers but will require a RHEL
BZ, subsequently bare-metal results may be submitted to satisfy any
cpuscaling testing requirements.

The cdrom test is now scheduled and required to run per media type
supported (CD-ROM & DVD).

The interim XML (plan.xml, config.xml) files are no longer created, all
logging is handled in results.xml.


Known issues:

* Nehalem CPUs will fail the cpuscaling test when "Turbo Boost" is 
enabled in the BIOS.

* A new oprofile test is not included in this build.

* The documentation is not updated to include commands, features
and requirements changes.


Changelog highlights from 5.2-20(current) through 5.3-3(beta):

208428: VIDEO test should default to requirements
432588: Enable/Disabling tests by --device enables/disables all devices
445617: Use of --test option in print command produces no output ...
451074: FEAT: when the info test fails because the rpm validation of ...
452085: HTS server is not verified when setting --server option
455290: FEAT: results.xml should use a stylesheet
455615: FEAT: HTS should include a list of discovered devices in ...
455743: /var/hts seems to have wrong selinux label
459721: FEAT: save command for saving test results
461935: HTS creates unnecessary intermediate files config.xml, plan.xml
462349: FEAT: cdrom test should be split into multiple tests by ...
463354: FEAT: cpuscaling test should be run separately for each cpu
466716: "hts clean" will not clean the results/config files which ...
467061: FEAT: HTS options for data files should be removed (--data, ...
467737: FEAT: hts certify command should recommend tests to ...
468918: FEAT: HTS should check for hardware changes before running tests
471236: hts 5.3 tracebacking after plan
471458: traceback on submit and save commands
471947: config.xml not found during submit command

Red Hat values your ongoing participation and testing in the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux development and testing 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.