SMI Tutorial > Resources and References > Conformance Test Program
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Conformance Test Program |
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Conformance Test Program | SMI-Lab | References
The goal of the SMI-S 1.1.0 is to achieve interoperability in a Storage Area Network (SAN) that is a heterogeneous environment of management applications, storage devices and storage systems from different vendors. The first step towards this goal is the definition of Profiles and Subprofiles. They define the CIM elements that a Client and SMI Agent will use to perform particular storage management tasks.
However, by itself, the SMI-S 1.1.0 does not ensure interoperability. First, the specification may have ambiguities that developers can interpret differently. Second, an implementation may have design flaws. Either may prevent interoperability. Recognizing the problem, the SNIA created the Conformance Test Program (CTP) to test vendor conformance to the SMI-Specification and support the adoption of SMI enabled products. The CTP is the testing process that validates the numerous vendor implementations of the SMI-Specification.
The CTP is a test harness that is configured to exercise a vendor's product for conformance to a particular Profile and Subprofiles. The CTP is driven by an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file. For each Profile and Subprofile, an XML file explicitly defines the CIM elements used along with the permissible values allowed. Using the appropriate XML file, the CTP exercises the product for conformance to the SMI-S Profile and Subprofile definition. For example, to certify a vendor's array product, the CTP will use the array.xml file to verify that all mandatory CIM Classes of the Array Profile have been implemented. Additionally, it will verify that all mandatory Properties of the Array Profile have valid values. After successful completion, a vendor may choose to list its SMI-S conformant products on the SNIA web site.
Finally, because the CTP program is focused on providing a vendor-neutral, end user positive service to the industry, the SNIA does not release performance metrics and the test is reported as ‘pass’ only. The test results are confidential and only released to the vendor requesting conformance testing.
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