Configuring hosts on the Autotest server

How to configure your hosts in the Autotest service.

Hosts

Hosts must be added to the Autotest system before they can be used to run tests. Hosts can be added through the one-time hosts interface, but for repeated tests it’s better to add them to the system properly. Hosts can be added through the admin interface (WebFrontendHowTo) or the CLI (CLIHowTo). Host options include:

  • hostname – this is how the host will be identified in the frontend and CLI and how Autotest will attempt to connect to the host.
  • locked – when a host is locked, no jobs will be scheduled on the host. Existing jobs will continue to completion.
  • protection – see HostProtections.

Labels

Labels can be applied to machines to indicates arbitrary features of machines. The most common usage of labels is to indicate a machine’s platform, but they can also be used to indicate machine capabilities or anything else the user likes. Labels are displayed in the frontend but also play an important role in AdvancedJobScheduling.

  • name – this is how the label will be identified in the frontend and CLI
  • kernel_configdeprecated this field is generally unused and should be removed
  • platform – true if this label indicates a platform type. This option affects web frontend display only and has no effect on scheduling.
  • only_if_needed – see AdvancedJobScheduling#Onlyifneededlabels.

ACLs

Access Control Lists restrict which users can perform certain actions on machines. They are primarily used to prevent other users from running jobs on a particular user’s machines. See ACLBehavior for details on what ACLs control and how they work.

Each ACL is associated with some group of users and some group of machines. A user has ACL access to a machine if she is in any ACL group with that machine. By default, all users and and machines are in the “Everyone” ACL, which essentially makes a machine publicly shared in the system.

Any user can create a new ACL using web frontend (WebFrontendHowTo) or CLI (CLIHowTo).