Certifying Controllers

This chapter gives step-by-step instructions on how to use HCTS to certify a controller.

HCTS Controller Certification enables you to certify network, storage, and serial I/O controller technologies for use with the Solaris OS. See the following sections for more information:

To certify a controller, you must submit the test reports, driver, and controller to Sun for audit.

Note - If you use a third-party driver, make sure the driver is the same data model as the kernel. Make sure you have a 32-bit driver if you are certifying on a 32-bit system. Make sure you have a 64-bit driver if you are certifying on a 64-bit system.

When a driver supports multiple controllers, the controller that supports the most extensive feature set is designated the primary controller. Additional controllers supported by the same device driver are known as supplementary controllers. If you certify a primary controller at Level 2, you can certify at Level 1 any supplementary controllers that are supported by the same driver that was used to certify the primary controller. These supplementary controllers that you certify at Level 1 will be listed at Certification Level 2 on the HCL.

The following sections show how to use HCTS to certify network, storage, and serial I/O controllers. Select the Help button in HCTS for more specific information.

Certifying Network Controllers

The HCTS Network Controller certification enables you to test the following technologies:

Fast Ethernet -- including IPv4 and optionally IPv6
Gigabit Ethernet -- including IPv4 and optionally IPv6

HCTS supports single port NIC and multiport NIC certification. For multiport NIC, HCTS supports dual port and quad port NIC certification.

For multiport NIC certification, you must configure each port of the multiport NIC. The IP bound to each port must be in a different subnet.

If you enable IPv6 certification, you do not need to configure the IPv6 interface. HCTS automatically configures IPv6 interfaces.

The testing procedure is the same for each of these network technologies.

Make sure your system meets the general hardware and software requirements for all certifications stated in the Hardware Certification Test Suite Installation Guide and the specific requirements for network controller certifications stated in the Network Controller Certification Level 1 Test Plan and the Network Controller Certification Level 2 Test Plan. Make sure you do the "Test Network Setup" required for level 1 or level 2 certification.
Disable NIS.

Note - Before certifying network controllers, you must disable NIS.
Successfully complete all manual tests required for the hardware and certification level you are testing:
- Network Controller, Level 1 Manual Tests
- Network Controller, Level 2 Manual Tests
Review the tests that will be performed during this automated portion of HCTS testing:
- Network Controller, Level 1 Automated Tests
- Network Controller, Level 2 Automated Tests
Start HCTS as described in Starting the HCTS Application.
On the Start Page, click the Controller Certification button.

The Start Page is shown in Figure 2-1.
On the Controller Certification screen, select either Level 1 or Level 2 from the pull-down menu.
In the Network section of the certification screen, select the network technology (Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet) of the hardware that you want to certify.

Figure 3-1 Controller Certification Screen with Fast Ethernet Selected
Select the Enable IPv6 Certification check box if you want to perform IPv6 certification.
Click the Continue button at the bottom of the screen.
On the select action screen, click the Certify Controller button.

The Certify Controller button enables you to certify your controller using the standard set of automated tests for the predetermined amount of time.

Figure 3-2 Controller Select Action Screen
On the Certification Stress Tests Screen, enter the Network Client Hostname in the field provided.

This can be a name such as lab1 or it can be an IP address. See Hardware Requirements for requirements for host names.

If you are certifying a multi-port NIC, you must enter the host name and client name for each port.

Note - All ports must be plumbed before they are tested.

Figure 3-3 Network Certification Stress Tests Screen for a Single-Port Controller
Click the Begin Certification button to start the controller certification tests on the designated network client.

Once the tests start, the Review Test Status screen displays. See Reviewing Test Status for more information about this screen.

Note - At any time during the test run, you can select the Stop Tests button to terminate the certification process. See the information on Stop Tests in Usage Notes.

Next: Fibre Channel, RAID, SATA, and SCSI