KR20230056167A - Automated test method and apparatus for container-based network service - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses an automated testing method and a device for container-based network services. According to the present invention, provided is an automated test device for container-based network services, comprising: a tenant which extracts resources required for test execution of a system under test which includes multiple virtual network functions (VNFs), and generates infrastructure configuration commands for test execution; an infrastructure code tool which receives the infrastructure configuration command from the tenant and causes a virtual infrastructure manager to install a kubernetes cluster required for testing; a test manager which creates a test script using metadata of the test description transmitted by the tenant as a parameter; a traffic generator which generates traffic according to the task script and delivers it to the system under test; a monitor agent which captures a network service package according to traffic input to the system under test, collects necessary information for the network service package, and generates a collected test report log; and a monitor manager who receives the test report log and sends the final test results to the tenant upon completion of all tests. Accordingly, the present invention has the advantage of being able to test interoperability between multiple VNFs.

Description

Automated test method and apparatus for container-based network service {Automated test method and apparatus for container-based network service}

The present invention relates to an automated test method and apparatus for container-based network services.

ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institutes) defines NFV (Network Function Virtualization) and related concepts to reduce network installation and operation costs.

A virtual network function (VNF) of an NFV network implements a network function in software in a virtual machine or container on top of a shared server instead of dedicated hardware.

In the NFV environment, VNF testing is considered as one of the key technologies. A single VNF must undergo conformance testing and performance testing.

In addition, since VNFs communicate with other VNFs to provide actual services, interoperability tests must be performed to verify communication between multiple VNFs.

Previous research on VNF testing was limited to single VNF platform testing, and interoperability testing between multiple VNFs was not addressed.

Korean Registered Patent Publication 10-2262395

In order to solve the problems of the prior art, the present invention proposes an automated test method and apparatus for a container-based network service capable of testing interoperability between a plurality of VNFs.

In order to achieve the above object, according to an embodiment of the present invention, resources required for test execution of a system under test including a plurality of virtual network functions (VNFs) are extracted, and infrastructure configuration commands for test execution are provided. A tenant that creates a (Tenant); an infrastructure code tool that receives the infrastructure configuration command from the tenant and causes a virtual infrastructure manager to install a Kubernetes cluster required for testing; a test manager generating a test script using metadata of the test description transmitted by the tenant as a parameter; a traffic generator generating traffic according to the task script and transmitting the traffic to the test target system; a monitor agent that captures a network service package according to traffic input to the system under test, collects necessary information for the network service package, and generates a collected test report log; and a monitor manager for receiving the test report log and transmitting a final test result to the tenant when all tests are finished.

The tenant may generate the infrastructure configuration command when a plurality of users input a network service package for the system under test through an API/CLI (Application Programming Interface/Command Line Interface) gateway.

The resource may be individually allocated to each of the plurality of users.

The tenant, infrastructure code tool, test manager, traffic generator, monitor agent, and monitor manager may receive a request-response through a Representational State Transfer (REST) API using a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) message format.

The network service package may consist of test descriptions and test profiles in which virtual network functions are written in YAML language.

The test manager may notify the test profile to the monitor manager.

The tenant may output the final test result to the user and deploy all networks and resources used in the test.

The monitor agent may be integrated into the virtual network function as a sidecar container.

According to another aspect of the present invention, as an automated test method for a container-based network service, a tenant extracts resources necessary for test execution of a test target system including a plurality of virtual network functions (VNFs), and tests generating an infrastructure configuration command for execution; Instructing an infrastructure code tool to receive the infrastructure configuration command from the tenant and to have a virtual infrastructure manager install a Kubernetes cluster required for testing; generating, by a test manager, a test script using metadata of a test description transmitted by the tenant as a parameter; generating, by a traffic generator, traffic according to the task script and transmitting the traffic to the test target system; capturing, by a monitor agent, a network service package according to traffic input to the system under test, collecting necessary information for the network service package, and generating a collected test report log; and receiving, by the monitor manager, the test report log, and transmitting a final test result to the tenant when all tests are finished.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer readable recording medium storing a program for performing the above method is provided.

According to the present invention, there is an advantage in that interoperability tests between a plurality of VNFs are possible.

1 is a diagram illustrating an automated test framework for a container-based network service according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
2 and 3 are diagrams illustrating a workflow according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Since the present invention can make various changes and have various embodiments, specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail.

However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific embodiments, and should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention.

1 is a diagram illustrating an automated test framework for a container-based network service according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

NS UT (Network Service) is a configuration of network functions to be tested, and is defined by function and operation specifications. A plurality of VNFs may be connected to a network service.

The API/CLI (Application Programming Interface/Command Line Interface) gateway 100 is an interface that loads systems under test (VNFs).

The tenant (Tenant, 102) manages resources individually assigned to each user for testing.

The tenant 102 provides a separate set of components to each user based on the Factory pattern, and in the Factory pattern, a new set of objects is created using a common interface. Tenant 102 creates a new set of system components for each user.

Infrastructure as Code Tool (IaC, 104) is a coherent processor that provisions virtualized resources, allowing the virtualized infrastructure manager to build the system under test.

The infrastructure code tool 104 helps the test framework according to the present embodiment automate system under test utilization and independence of a specific virtualized infrastructure manager.

The test manager (Test Manager, 106) executes necessary functions in the traffic generator (Traffic generator, 108) according to the test script.

The traffic generator 108 delivers traffic to the network for use by network services, and may be, for example, an apache bench tool.

Test manager 106 maps test descriptions and task script functions to generate completed commands that are executed in traffic generator 108, and provides a profile for each test case in the test description.

The monitor manager (Monitor Manager, 110) receives a profile for the test case being executed, and receives a test report log from the monitor agent (Monitor agent, 112).

The monitor agent 112 is integrated into each virtual network function (VNF) of the network service as a sidecar container, and delivers a test report log of the virtual network function to the monitor manager 110 .

Here, a sidecar container is defined as a special container that comes with the default container for a given pod.

The following describes Kubernetes related to sidecar containers.

Kubernetes (Kubernetes, K8s) is an extensible, portable, open-source system originally built by Google and developed and maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

Kubernetes allows you to manage containers on a cluster of nodes.

Containers are considered a key technology for microservice architectures.

In general, microservices are deployed as pods, which are the smallest deployable units in Kubernetes.

To provide application services, you manage and orchestrate groups of pods.

One or more masters and several worker nodes make up a Kubernetes cluster.

In practice, more masters exist to ensure high availability and load balancing.

A set of master nodes, called the control plane, is the management layer of Kubernetes. By default, the control plane includes a Kubernetes API server that exposes the Kubernetes API. All communication between Kubernetes components is done through the API server.

The API server communicates with Etcd, a distributed key-value database, via the gRPC protocol, and stores metadata of API objects in Etcd. All resources in a Kubernetes cluster are represented as API objects. The other part of the control plane is the controllers run by kube-controller-manager.

Kube-controller-manager consists of various controllers. Each kind of workload resource has its own controller that provides the logic for this workload resource.

The controller monitors resource objects through an API. In Kubernetes, the Controller acts as a control loop that observes the state of the cluster and then makes or requests changes as needed.

In particular, each controller attempts to synchronize the current state closer to the desired state. Finally, the control plane includes the scheduler. The scheduler monitors the health of the cluster via an API for unscheduled pods, runs scheduling algorithms, and updates pods with information about reserved nodes.

The traffic sink 114 is an endpoint that receives traffic generated by the traffic generator 108.

2 to 3 are diagrams illustrating a workflow according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The interaction of the core components (tenant, infrastructure code tool, test manager, traffic generator, monitor agent, and monitor manager) is "request-response" via a Representational State Transfer (REST) API using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) message format. "Follow the paradigm.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the user inputs a network service package for the system under test through the API/CLI gateway 100 (step 200).

The network service package consists of a test description and test profile in which the virtual network function is written in YAML language.

The tenant 102 separates and manages resources for each user, extracts resources required for test execution, and transmits an infrastructure configuration command for test execution to the infrastructure code tool 104 (step 202). .

Upon receiving the above command, the infrastructure code tool 104 instructs the Virtual Infrastructure Manager 116 to install the Kubernetes cluster required for the test (step 204), and the virtual infrastructure manager 116 configures the virtual network function (VNF), the traffic generator 108, and the resource created through communication with the monitor agent 112 are transmitted to the tenant 102 (step 206).

In addition, the tenant 102 transmits a test description necessary for test execution to the test manager 106 (step 208).

The test manager 106 maps test descriptions and task script functions and waits until the system under test has been successfully deployed (step 210).

The test manager 106 with built-in test functionality creates a test script using the metadata of the test description as a parameter.

Referring to FIG. 3 , the test manager 106 notifies the monitor manager 110 of the test case (profile) (step 300), and then the test script is executed in the system under test (step 302).

The traffic generator 108 generates traffic according to the task script and delivers it to the system under test (step 304).

The generated traffic is input to the corresponding VNF, and the monitor agent 112 captures a network service package according to traffic input to the system under test and collects necessary information for the network service package (step 306).

As shown in FIG. 1, the monitor agent 112 corresponds to an individual virtual network function.

The monitor agent 112 transmits the collected test report logs to the monitor manager 110 (step 308).

When all tests are completed, the monitor manager 110 reports the final test results to the tenant 102 (step 310).

The tenant 102 outputs the final test result to the user (step 312), and then deploys all networks and resources used in the test (step 314).

The embodiments of the present invention described above have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, and those skilled in the art having ordinary knowledge of the present invention will be able to make various modifications, changes, and additions within the spirit and scope of the present invention, and such modifications, changes, and additions will be considered to fall within the scope of the following claims.

Claims (10)

A tenant extracting resources necessary for test execution of a test target system including a plurality of virtual network functions (VNFs) and generating infrastructure configuration commands for test execution;
an infrastructure code tool that receives the infrastructure configuration command from the tenant and causes a virtual infrastructure manager to install a Kubernetes cluster required for testing;
a test manager generating a test script using metadata of the test description transmitted by the tenant as a parameter;
a traffic generator generating traffic according to the task script and transmitting the traffic to the test target system;
a monitor agent that captures a network service package according to traffic input to the system under test, collects necessary information for the network service package, and generates a collected test report log; and
An automated test device for a container-based network service including a monitor manager that receives the test report log and transmits a final test result to the tenant when all tests are finished. According to claim 1,
The tenant is an automated test device that generates the infrastructure configuration command when a plurality of users input a network service package for the system under test through an API/CLI (Application Programming Interface/Command Line Interface) gateway. According to claim 2,
The automated test device wherein the resource is allocated individually for each of the plurality of users. According to claim 1,
The tenant, infrastructure code tool, test manager, traffic generator, monitor agent, and monitor manager receive a request-response through a REST (Representational State Transfer) API using JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) message format Automated test device. According to claim 1,
The network service package is an automated test device in which virtual network functions are composed of test descriptions and test profiles written in the YAML language. According to claim 1,
The test manager notifies the test profile to the monitor manager. According to claim 1,
The tenant outputs the final test result to the user, and the automated test device deploys all networks and resources used in the test. According to claim 1,
The monitor agent is an automated test device integrated into the virtual network function as a sidecar container. As an automated test method for container-based network services,
extracting, by a tenant, resources necessary for test execution of a system under test including a plurality of virtual network functions (VNFs), and generating an infrastructure configuration command for test execution;
Instructing an infrastructure code tool to receive the infrastructure configuration command from the tenant and to have a virtual infrastructure manager install a Kubernetes cluster required for testing;
generating, by a test manager, a test script using metadata of a test description transmitted by the tenant as a parameter;
generating, by a traffic generator, traffic according to the task script and transmitting the traffic to the test target system;
capturing, by a monitor agent, a network service package according to traffic input to the system under test, collecting necessary information for the network service package, and generating a collected test report log; and
An automated test method comprising receiving the test report log by the monitor manager and transmitting a final test result to the tenant when all tests are finished. A computer-readable recording medium storing a program for performing the method according to claim 9.

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