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Batch of various tiny fixes:

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* Replace first Windows occurence with trademarked entity

  * Add trademark info for Microsoft Windows and Symantec Ghost.

  * Replace "FreeBSD" with &os; and "ports collection" with &ports;,
    to keep the capitalization consistent.  Also introduce an &os.ports;
    entity, which expands to "FreeBSD Ports Collection", to uniformly
    refer to the Ports

  * Add <emphasis>, <application> and <quote> tags here and there

  * Use manpage entities, instead of <literal> for FreeBSD
    command-line utility references

  * Various minor grammar and syntax nits
This commit is contained in:
Giorgos Keramidas 2006-10-24 18:09:18 +00:00
parent f9dd8e24dd
commit 2951ed254b
Notes: svn2git 2020-12-08 03:00:23 +00:00 
svn path=/head/; revision=28925
1 changed files with 115 additions and 107 deletions
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222
en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/wp-toolbox/article.sgml
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@ -5,10 +5,17 @@
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [
<!ENTITY % articles.ent PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook FreeBSD Articles Entity Set//EN">
%articles.ent;
<!ENTITY ports "Ports Collection">
<!ENTITY os.ports "&os; &ports;">
<!ENTITY frisbee "<application>Frisbee</application>">
<!ENTITY ghost "<application>Ghost</application>">
<!ENTITY nessus "<application>Nessus</application>">
]>
<article>
<title>Creating a Software Testing Environment Using FreeBSD</title>
<title>Creating a Software Testing Environment Using &os;</title>
<articleinfo>
<authorgroup>
@ -27,6 +34,8 @@
&tm-attrib.freebsd;
&tm-attrib.cvsup;
&tm-attrib.intel;
&tm-attrib.microsoft;
&tm-attrib.symantec;
&tm-attrib.xfree86;
&tm-attrib.general;
</legalnotice>
@ -42,20 +51,20 @@
<title>Overview</title>
<para>From late 2003 until early 2005, I was a tester in an
all-Windows environment. Although unlikely on the face of it,
FreeBSD became a valuable test tool platform in that context.
FreeBSD contains useful and powerful applications for any tester
all-&windows; environment. Although unlikely on the face of it,
&os; became a valuable test tool platform in that context.
&os; contains useful and powerful applications for any tester
in any environment.</para>
<para>Unlike Linux, FreeBSD is a single monolithic project rather
<para>Unlike Linux, &os; is a single monolithic project, rather
than a collection of disparate parts assembled into a
distribution. And the most attractive part of FreeBSD for a
software tester is the FreeBSD ports collection&mdash;a very large,
managed set of software applications with a single simple and
distribution. And the most attractive part of &os; for a
software tester is the &os.ports;&mdash;a very large,
managed set of software applications with a single, simple, and
uniform installation procedure.</para>
<para>This paper describes several software test tools from the
FreeBSD ports collection that I used to test software and
&os.ports; that I used to test software and
systems in an all-Windows environment.</para>
</sect1>
@ -66,13 +75,13 @@
<para>Software testing environments are radically more complex
than software development environments. Interconnected systems
to test, network entities, databases, and filesystems present
challenges to testers that developers can for the most part mock
challenges to testers that developers can, for the most part, mock
out and essentially ignore. Software testers need more tools,
and more complex tools, than do software developers.</para>
<para>On the other hand, software development tools are much more
highly evolved than software testing tools. There is no Eclipse
or IntelliJ or even Visual Studio aimed at testing. Testers
highly evolved than software testing tools. There is no Eclipse,
or IntelliJ, or even Visual Studio aimed at testing. Testers
struggle and scratch to find tools appropriate to their test
environments and appropriate to their Systems Under Test (SUTs).</para>
@ -84,36 +93,36 @@
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>The FreeBSD Solution</title>
<title>The &os; Solution</title>
<sect2 id="freebsd-intro">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>The set of tools available with the FreeBSD Operating
System is amazing. The FreeBSD <ulink
url="http://www.freebsd.org/ports">ports collection</ulink>
<para>The set of tools available with the &os; Operating
System is amazing. The &os; <ulink
url="http://www.freebsd.org/ports">&ports;</ulink>
contains more than thirteen thousand separate applications,
all of which have a standard installation procedure and
conform to a set of guidelines that make them reliable without
the need to manage dependencies, appropriate versions, and all
of the other problems that affect even the most well-managed
Linux distribution or the various versions of Microsoft
Windows. The monolithic nature of FreeBSD and the FreeBSD
ports collection removes much of the trouble of integrating
Windows. The monolithic nature of &os; and the &os.ports;
removes much of the trouble of integrating
tools with the test environment, regardless of the OS under
which the SUT runs. FreeBSD is a highly evolved server
which the SUT runs. &os; is a highly evolved server
environment, and contains so many reliable applications, that
every tester should consider adding a FreeBSD machine (or
every tester should consider adding a &os; machine (or
several) to their test environment.</para>
<para>Of course, all of the applications available in the
FreeBSD ports collection will not be appropriate for any single
&os.ports; will not be appropriate for any single
test environment. Some of the obvious choices for software and
systems testing are the six hundred or so system utilities,
the more than one thousand network tools, and the fifty-odd
benchmarking tools. Whether your test environment is Windows,
UNIX, Linux, Mac OS, FreeBSD itself, or some combination of
any of them, FreeBSD and the FreeBSD ports collection is a
UNIX, Linux, Mac OS, &os; itself, or some combination of
any of them, &os; and the &os.ports; is a
great place to look first.</para>
</sect2>
@ -121,50 +130,49 @@
<sect2 id="freebsd-ports">
<title>How To Use The Ports System</title>
<para>Installing an application from the FreeBSD ports
collection is a simple matter of: </para>
<para>Installing an application from the &os.ports; is a simple matter of: </para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/ports/foo</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make install</userinput></screen>
<para>and the system does the rest. It reports build status and
test status, and installs all the relevant documentation as
well. This aspect of FreeBSD is very attractive to a tester,
well. This aspect of &os; is very attractive to a tester,
who typically is pressed for time!</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="freebsd-testing">
<title>FreeBSD For Testing</title>
<title>&os; For Testing</title>
<para>The test environment should be more stable than the SUT.
Once the tester decides to use the tools available on FreeBSD,
FreeBSD's long record of reliability makes it an easy choice
Once the tester decides to use the tools available on &os;,
&os;'s long record of reliability makes it an easy choice
for a test tools platform.</para>
<para>My own introduction to FreeBSD occurred when I was hired
<para>My own introduction to &os; occurred when I was hired
by a major vendor of large-scale network security video
services to be their network-testing person in an all-Windows
environment. My first assignment was to replace the obsolete,
buggy, disk imaging system. I chose to do that with an Open
Source disk imaging system called <ulink
url="http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/papers/frisbee-usenix03-base.html">Frisbee</ulink>
which was implemented originally on FreeBSD. I built the
url="http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/papers/frisbee-usenix03-base.html">&frisbee;</ulink>
which was implemented originally on &os;. I built the
system&mdash;a feature-for-feature replacement for an expensive
proprietary system&mdash;but we never actually used it in our
production system.</para>
<para>In the meantime, I had discovered the FreeBSD ports
collection and started to use some of those tools for testing;
and I had discovered the power of disk imaging with Frisbee,
<para>In the meantime, I had discovered the &os.ports;
and started to use some of those tools for testing;
and I had discovered the power of disk imaging with &frisbee;,
especially for smoke testing and installation testing; and
FreeBSD became a permanent part of my test lab. The test lab
I built, and the FreeBSD systems I created still exist, and
&os; became a permanent part of my test lab. The test lab
I built, and the &os; systems I created still exist, and
still provide value to the testers there.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="freebsd-collab">
<title>FreeBSD For Collaboration: Twiki</title>
<title>&os; For Collaboration: Twiki</title>
<para>A wiki is a simple set of web pages to allow many users to
share information and collaborate on any sort of documents.
@ -199,8 +207,8 @@
itself handled version control for such updates.</para>
<para>As with all of the examples in this paper, installing
Twiki on FreeBSD is fairly simple. It takes just a few
minutes on a FreeBSD system. However, if you want to use Twiki
Twiki on &os; is fairly simple. It takes just a few
minutes on a &os; system. However, if you want to use Twiki
on a Microsoft Windows platform, I strongly suggest you read
the Twiki documentation extremely carefully. I know someone
who installed Twiki on Windows, and it took him several days.
@ -208,27 +216,27 @@
also deep knowledge of Cygwin and Perl.</para>
<para>Furthermore, at one point in the project I had to migrate
my wiki from a machine running FreeBSD 4.8 to one running
FreeBSD 5.3. The migration consisted merely of installing
Twiki on FreeBSD 5.3; using <command>tar</command> on the FreeBSD 4.8
my wiki from a machine running &os;&nbsp;4.8 to one running
&os;&nbsp;5.3. The migration consisted merely of installing
Twiki on &os;&nbsp;5.3; using <command>tar</command> on the &os;&nbsp;4.8
machine to gather all of the Twiki data files specific to my
testing; FTPing the gathered files to the new FreeBSD 5.3
testing; FTPing the gathered files to the new &os;&nbsp;5.3
machine; and untarring the file. The complete set of Twiki
documents migrated with no issues or problems at all. That is
the power of a unified system like FreeBSD.</para>
the power of a unified system like &os;.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="freebsd-frisbee">
<title>FreeBSD For Disk Imaging: Frisbee</title>
<title>&os; For Disk Imaging: Frisbee</title>
<para>A disk imaging system is a mechanism for saving and
restoring all of the data on a physical disk. The most
popular commercial system for doing this is probably the
product Ghost from Symantec.</para>
product &ghost;&trade; from Symantec.</para>
<para>The Frisbee enterprise disk imaging system mentioned above
<para>The &frisbee; enterprise disk imaging system mentioned above
had a lot of features I never implemented in the test lab.
Using Frisbee and an Open Source tool called PXELINUX, I was
Using &frisbee; and an Open Source tool called <application>PXELINUX</application>, I was
able to:</para>
<itemizedlist>
@ -239,37 +247,37 @@
<listitem><simpara>Make a set of restore CDs for the client</simpara></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>In the test lab, I only needed to boot from the Frisbee
CD, make an image, or lay down an image on the client machine.
Both Frisbee and proprietary imaging systems allow the user to
<para>In the test lab, I only needed to boot from the &frisbee;&nbsp;CD,
make an image, or lay down an image on the client machine.
Both &frisbee; and proprietary imaging systems allow the user to
image individual drives on the client, but I never had a need
to do this.</para>
<para>Installation testing was a large part of my duties at the
company where I used FreeBSD. To do this testing, I would
typically use Frisbee to make an image of a machine containing
company where I used &os;. To do this testing, I would
typically use &frisbee; to make an image of a machine containing
only a Windows OS, install the SUT, and run a smoke test. The
smoke test typically left the test machine in a very bad
state. But instead of having to painstakingly clean up the
mess left by the failed installation, I simply re-imaged the
machine in question with the bare OS image and started over.
A typical re-image containing only the Windows OS and a few
test tools took less than three minutes. Using Frisbee, we
test tools took less than three minutes. Using &frisbee;, we
could run smoke tests on about six builds per day; before
Frisbee, we could run smoke tests on about three builds per
&frisbee;, we could run smoke tests on about three builds per
week.</para>
<para>Of course, Ghost or other proprietary tools also image
<para>Of course, &ghost; or other proprietary tools also image
machines quickly under these circumstances: once you buy the
tool, license the software, install it on an appropriate
server, and configure it properly. I prefer Frisbee to Ghost
because: Frisbee is marginally faster; Frisbee is very easy to
install on FreeBSD; and Frisbee is very efficient. Adding a
couple of small Perl scripts to the normal Frisbee
server, and configure it properly. I prefer &frisbee; to &ghost;
because: &frisbee; is marginally faster; &frisbee; is very easy to
install on &os;; and &frisbee; is very efficient. Adding a
couple of small Perl scripts to the normal &frisbee;
distribution gave me an imaging environment tailored for the
test lab.</para>
<para>I also used Frisbee to preserve the state of a machine
<para>I also used &frisbee; to preserve the state of a machine
after I had uncovered particularly complex defects. That is,
if it took a large effort (many steps and/or a long duration
of time) to demonstrate a defect, I could make an image of the
@ -279,64 +287,64 @@
</sect2>
<sect2 id="freebsd-nessus">
<title>FreeBSD Security Testing: Nessus</title>
<title>&os; Security Testing: &nessus;</title>
<para>Whenever you have more than one entity on a network, and
whenever you expose a server to the wider Internet, security
of the machine itself is always a concern. <ulink
url="http://www.nessus.org">Nessus</ulink> is an Open Source
url="http://www.nessus.org">&nessus;</ulink> is an Open Source
remote vulnerability scanner for security and penetration
testing that consistently is rated among the top products of
its type throughout the security industry.</para>
<para>Nessus probes a remote machine over the network for
<para>&nessus; probes a remote machine over the network for
security vulnerabilities. It does a port scan, finds which
ports are open, and investigates the software that has those
ports open for a huge number of security risks, for all major
OSs. It generates detailed reports in a number of formats
that anyone can understand. The number of security probes
available in the default installation of Nessus is very large,
available in the default installation of &nessus; is very large,
but sophisticated security and penetration testers take
advantage of NASL, the Nessus Attack Scripting Language, to
craft their own attacks using Nessus' available features.</para>
advantage of NASL, the &nessus; Attack Scripting Language, to
craft their own attacks using &nessus;' available features.</para>
<para>Of interest is that, while Nessus is a free download for
UNIX-like systems (and is available in the ports collection of
FreeBSD), it is available on Windows only as a commercial
product from a company called Tenable. The Tenable product is
NeWT, Nessus on Windows Technology.</para>
<para>Of interest is that, while &nessus; is a free download for
UNIX-like systems (and is available in the &ports; of
&os;), it is available on Windows only as a commercial
product from a company called <emphasis>Tenable</emphasis>. The Tenable product is
<application>NeWT</application>, <quote>Nessus on Windows Technology</quote>.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="freebsd-network">
<title>FreeBSD Network Tools</title>
<title>&os; Network Tools</title>
<para>FreeBSD is most widely used as a robust server platform.
<para>&os; is most widely used as a robust server platform.
It follows, then, that tools related to network analysis and
performance will be highly evolved on FreeBSD. Here is a
performance will be highly evolved on &os;. Here is a
brief description of network diagnostic tools that I found
invaluable in testing in a networked environment.</para>
<para>From the name, one would assume that <ulink
url="http://www.ntop.org">ntop</ulink> emulates the functions of
the UNIX <command>top</command> command, but for the network
the UNIX &man.top.1; command, but for the network
rather than for the local machine. Perhaps the first version
did; currently, ntop is capable of providing detailed
did; currently, <application>ntop</application> is capable of providing detailed
information about a huge number of hosts and their status and
activities on the network.</para>
<para>For testing, two features I found very powerful: at a high
level, <command>ntop</command> shows the amount of network
level, <application>ntop</application> shows the amount of network
traffic on the entire network segment minute-by-minute,
hour-by-hour, and day-by-day in a graphical format. Also,
ntop shows information about recent connections between
<application>ntop</application> shows information about recent connections between
individual hosts on the network.</para>
<para>It is easy to see traffic trends on the network as they
are occurring; also, if something anomalous appears, ntop
are occurring; also, if something anomalous appears, <application>ntop</application>
records detailed information about network connections between
hosts, including the ports over which the connection happened.
This was critically important when analyzing software
issues. If ntop showed a period of time for which traffic was
issues. If <application>ntop</application> showed a period of time for which traffic was
particularly high, I would find out which host was generating
the traffic. I would examine the software running on that
host, over that port. Often it was a new build with a
@ -345,22 +353,22 @@
<para><ulink url="http://ettercap.sourceforge.net">Ettercap</ulink> is
a tool for ARP poisoning which can also decipher passwords on
the fly and corrupt IP traffic by means of a Man In The Middle
(MITM) attack. However, I used ettercap as a performance tool.
In my test labs, all of my FreeBSD machines ran on discarded
(MITM) attack. However, I used <application>Ettercap</application> as a performance tool.
In my test labs, all of my &os; machines ran on discarded
hardware, Pentium II processors. I found that when I used
ettercap to sniff traffic between two hosts, the lack of
processing power caused ettercap on the slow MITM machine to
<application>Ettercap</application> to sniff traffic between two hosts, the lack of
processing power caused <application>Ettercap</application> on the slow MITM machine to
start dropping packets, making it look to the client machine
in the SUT as if there was interference or other trouble on
the network. And by varying the load on the FreeBSD machine,
the network. And by varying the load on the &os; machine,
I could in fact control the number of packets being dropped:
running ettercap and the UNIX <command>yes</command> utility
running <application>Ettercap</application> and the UNIX <command>yes</command> utility
caused 100% packet loss.</para>
<para>This was my most creative use of a FreeBSD tool for
<para>This was my most creative use of a &os; tool for
testing. In a more straightforward application, any time a
tester needs to eavesdrop on traffic between two hosts on a
network, ettercap is an excellent choice because of its power
network, <application>Ettercap</application> is an excellent choice because of its power
and ease of use.</para>
<para>Perl gets a special mention here because Perl's network
@ -368,13 +376,13 @@
languages. Perl <literal>Net::*</literal> modules and
<literal>IO::Socket::*</literal> modules are robust and
powerful&mdash;but they often fail to compile on Windows. It is
the ease of use of Perl's network utilities on FreeBSD that
the ease of use of Perl's network utilities on &os; that
gets Perl the mention in this section.</para>
<para>I use Perl's network utilities to impersonate network
clients and servers for test purposes. On one occasion, I was
required to test software that was a client to an interface on
the New York Stock Exchange. Unfortunately, the NYSE test
the <emphasis>New York Stock Exchange</emphasis>. Unfortunately, the NYSE test
server was down about nine days out of ten. I wrote a little
network server in Perl to emulate simple functions of the NYSE
server in order to test the client software.</para>
@ -385,7 +393,7 @@
<para>I have also used Perl to validate the output from a server
sending to a multicast address. I wrote a simple Perl
multicast client on FreeBSD to monitor the traffic on a
multicast client on &os; to monitor the traffic on a
multicast address. Lincoln Stein's excellent
<literal>IO::Socket::Multicast</literal> module made it easy.
(Note: I never got <literal>IO::Socket::Multicast</literal> to
@ -397,12 +405,12 @@
<sect1 id="conclusion">
<title>Conclusion</title>
<para>I used tools from the FreeBSD ports collection in four
<para>I used tools from the &os.ports; in four
areas: in the network, where the operating system has very
little impact on how software behaves; for remote security
testing and performance testing in order to manipulate remote
machines over the network regardless of the operating system;
for disk imaging of Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD machines; and on
machines over the network, regardless of the operating system;
for disk imaging of Windows, Linux, and &os; machines; and on
the webserver, where Twiki was my collaboration tool of choice.</para>
<para>Because the installation procedure for all of these tools is
@ -412,32 +420,32 @@
information located in just a few places. I kept all of my
potentially dangerous security tools on a single machine, which
made my presence on the network tolerable to the company's
network management staff. And the compatibility between FreeBSD
network management staff. And the compatibility between &os;
versions made it fairly simple to upgrade and to manage multiple
FreeBSD machines. And of course, I could rely on the
&os; machines. And of course, I could rely on the
correctness of my test results, because the system itself is so
reliable.</para>
<para>I have tried using Linux in a similar way, but my experience
is that package management quickly becomes tedious if not
overwhelming. The FreeBSD ports collection handled that for me.
overwhelming. The &os.ports; handled that for me.
And many of these tools are simply not available on Microsoft
Windows. And when they (or their equivalents) are available,
their cost, both financial and in terms of overhead, was simply
too high.</para>
<para>FreeBSD's simple installation procedures and robust ports
collection makes it easy to experiment with the huge number of
tools available. I often find myself browsing the ports
collection looking for interesting applications to install, just
to see how they work. (I found ettercap by browsing the ports
collection, a tool that became very useful very quickly.) It
became clear that the more tools I used on FreeBSD, the more
<para>&os;'s simple installation procedures and robust &ports;
makes it easy to experiment with the huge number of
tools available. I often find myself browsing the &ports;
looking for interesting applications to install, just
to see how they work. (I found <application>Ettercap</application> by browsing the &ports;,
a tool that became very useful very quickly.) It
became clear that the more tools I used on &os;, the more
economical became the management of those tools.</para>
<para>The next time you need to reach into your toolbox for some
sophisticated, reliable, and powerful testing tools, I hope you
find them in FreeBSD.</para>
find them in &os;.</para>
</sect1>
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