Phoromatic Tracker Strides Forward

Following in the success of the Phoronix Test Suite, last month we launched Phoromatic as a remote test management system targeted for enterprise users of the Phoronix Test Suite that allows the automatic scheduling of tests, remote installation of new tests, and the management of multiple test systems all through an intuitive, easy-to-use web interface. Whether you are looking to build a test farm or just benchmark systems around the world, Phoromatic can turn this otherwise taxing work into a really easy process with turn-key deployment capabilities. As an extension of Phoromatic, we then wrote Phoromatic Tracker that is designed to track any software component (either on a timed or per-commit basis) and automatically execute a set of tests each time around all in an autonomous matter and then pump the data back to the Phoromatic server and showcase it on the Phoromatic Tracker interface.

To showcase the capabilities of the Phoronix Test Suite combined with Phoromatic, we launched a reference implementation back in December by building a kernel test farm. Since December we have been monitoring the performance of the Linux kernel and its latest code on a daily basis over at kernel-tracker.phoromatic.com. The Phoromatic Tracker for the Linux kernel has already pointed out a few performance regressions during the Linux 2.6.33 and 2.6.34 development cycles all in an autonomous manner.

A few weeks back we added an Atom Z530 test-system running with a Btrfs file-system and another system using a dual-core Atom 330. This month though we have been enriching Phoromatic and the Tracker extension further by adding several new features as well as building another Phoromatic Tracker implementation that will be made public later this month.

The Phoromatic Server is now able to take advantage of underlying improvements made in the Phoronix Test Suite 2.6 development code thus far to provide better rendering of SVG graphs, quicker loading of Phoromatic Tracker pages, faster merging of test results, and other key improvements. We have also been investing in making specific improvements to Phoromatic Tracker, some of which are now public.

The automated regression detector available through Phoromatic Tracker (such as on the kernel page) is now smarter and can better handle multiple systems, the page size with its graph is now of a smaller file size, and we have begun adding additional overview-type graphs to the page. Through the options found at the top of the Phoromatic Tracker page you can access graphs that generate show the geometric mean and aggregate sum for all of the actual tests that day. This way rather than having to look at the detected regressions table or needing to scroll through 60+ graphs daily, you can look at these overview graphs that can indicate if there are any major changes on a given day to warrant digging deeper. We will also be adding overviews for other types such as weighted means.

Some other features that will be launched when we introduce our new tracker later this month is RSS notifications for new test results, a real-time ETA for how long until a test system is expected to upload new test results along with its current position in the test queue, an integrated test/system log viewer, and a few other features we'll hold back on announcing until they're launched.

The new, yet-to-be-announced tracker coming later this month will start out with three test systems that are pumping benchmarks out 24/7 (two of which systems are the new MSI Wind Box nettops, but more systems are expected to be added) and the test suite being run is even larger than our kernel tracker with there being 70+ tests as part of its execution queue. This public tracker should also be of great benefit to a particular Linux community in a similar fashion to our kernel tracker.

You can join in on the automated testing fun by grabbing the Phoronix Test Suite at Phoronix-Test-Suite.com and you can even make a free account at Phoromatic.com. Organizations looking to install a Phoromatic Server and/or the Phoromatic Tracker on their intranet can contact PTS Commercial for licensing details or to obtain professional support for the Phoronix Test Suite.

Stay tuned for more announcements.