In the last blog post we introduced described the need for a testing tool for Linux and middleware installations. After some Internet reasearch and a small test, we concluded RSpec would be a good fit. In this blog post, we will dive into the way we use RSpec to build the specifications and tests needed for your systems.

Just imagine yourself installing a Linux system with an Oracle database and a WebLogic application server. There are a lot of manual steps that have to be taken. A lot of commands to be typed and a lot of configurations to be set right in order to get the perfect system for the application. A lot of things can go wrong. You can miss a configuration setting. You can forget a command. Hopefully you get an error message because you did something wrong, but it can also turn out te be a silent error. One you only see after you have given the system to the application developers, or worse one that only comes out after the system is running in production and some load is put onto it. Hoe do we make sure a system is correct after the installation. In this blog post, I will describe how we used Rspec to test out installations.

While working as a software quality manager at a large company within the Netherlands, we started working on the repeatability and testability of our Linux platforms. We wanted to be able to deliver hight quality Linux platforms and deliver them fast. We believe that both of these abilities are key to achieving that goal. In the next month, I will post a series of blog posts on our experiences.