Driving Linux-based Benchmarking With Sandtorg

As is described at Phoromatic.com, Phoromatic is a remote management system for the Phoronix Test Suite. Phoromatic allows the automatic (hence the name Phoromatic) scheduling of tests, remote installation of new tests, and the management of multiple test systems all through an intuitive, easy-to-use web interface. Tests can be scheduled to automatically run on a routine basis across multiple test systems. The test results are then available from this central, secure location. Phoromatic will officially launch in conjunction with Phoronix Test Suite 2.0.

Phoromatic is designed for those companies and organizations that deploy the Phoronix Test Suite across many test systems that are now looking for a way to efficiently and effectively manage the systems. From a single point, the testing across all of the systems can be managed and schedules can be setup that target tests and suites to run on select (or all) of the systems. The results are then made available via this web-interface (almost like an advanced version of Phoronix Global) where the numbers can be analyzed and other features exposed -- such as the ability to have "shopping cart"-like comparisons of test systems and so forth. Some of these features will also end up being incorporated back into Phoronix Global.

While Phoromatic is primarily geared for those managing many test systems within an organization, the usefulness does not stop there. If you simply have one computer and wish to run some tests remotely but do not want to bother SSH'ing into the system, can't due to the network security, or anything like that, Phoromatic has you covered. Phoromatic plugs into the Phoronix Test Suite using the module framework and all testing is done just as if you were sitting in front of the system. The results along with relevant system details and logs are then made available via your Phoromatic account.

We are also experimenting with other ways to possibly utilize this remote test management system. It is already possible to use Phoromatic in a similar way to the Folding@home project or other distributed computing projects, but to apply that power to automated performance tests. If you wanted to donate a few hours of computing time to a project utilizing the Phoronix Test Suite, you could do that using Phoromatic. After synchronizing the Phoromatic client with the project, it would check to see what tests need to be carried out, execute them, and then report back the results. When there are enough results from many different systems, trends could be easily looked at using analytical options currently available in the Phoronix Test Suite with many more features like this coming in the near future. The same applies if say an organization or university offers up their excess computing power in the form of a test farm to a project looking to carry out regression tests, but they do not want to grant SSH access or other rights. With Phoromatic and the Phoronix Test Suite we are also looking to establish modules that will automatically run tests whenever a new commit is made to a revision control system's repository.

Well, that is enough on Phoromatic for now. In the next month or two more features of this remote management system will be shared as we begin pushing out the support for it into the Phoronix Test Suite and begin beta testing the web-based portion.