Making automated testing of cloud applications an integral component of PaaS

  • Authors:

  • Stefan Bucur;Johannes Kinder;George Candea

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Computer and Communication Sciences, Switzerland;School of Computer and Communication Sciences, Switzerland;School of Computer and Communication Sciences, Switzerland

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 4th Asia-Pacific Workshop on Systems
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

Traditional testing is inadequate for the complexity of modern cloud application software stacks. While the platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model has streamlined application development and deployment, its multiple abstraction layers and dependencies have made testing more difficult. We argue that a modern PaaS offering should include a facility to thoroughly and automatically test a deployed cloud application with only little developer effort. To support this vision, we propose layered parameterized tests (LPTs)---generalized integration tests suitable for cloud applications with multiple processing layers. From LPTs, a testing facility automatically generates concrete tests using layered symbolic execution, which focuses on exercising developer-written application logic instead of PaaS library code. We present our design of an automated testing system built on these concepts and demonstrate its use for a modern PaaS.