The IOL INTERACT™ test software streamlines testing conformance and automation of NVMe® SSDs and NVMe-oF™products, with the goal of verifying products for the Integrator’s List as well as testing overall NVMe conformance. UNH-IOL customers gain access to the tool through annual memberships, which allows testing in your own labs. Testing within your own lab qualifies as pre-testing, with a “pass” granting it validation to be sent to the UNH-IOL for further testing.
Annually, IOL INTERACT PC Edition launches two major releases in conjunction with the ICC Committee of NVMe.org. These also coincide with our Plugfests in November and June, as they feature new developments and technical proposals in the NVMe® industry. In terms of development, the UNH-IOL uses Agile processes: utilizing Jira for bug tracking and Bitbucket for storing code. Between major releases, there are additional minor releases for bug fixes and functionality.
As a relatively new release, the Zoned Namespace (ZNS) Application follows roughly the same guidelines for NVMe or NVMe Plugfest releases. ZNS refers to the specification of longer-lasting drives that grant higher overall performance. This allows for a host system to work under a new command set for accessing & acquiring more activity out of SSDs during specific workloads. ZNS will only be available in IOL INTERACT™ version 16.0 of release. Some of the newer tests will be listed as FYI (not mandatory), as customary for new test features; the rest have already been moved to mandatory from Plugfest #15. Testing occurring during November’s plugfest in combination with the 6 months of testing following will be used to update the mandatory list as needed; these will utilize the SPDK driver to support Zone Append tests.
Following Plugfest #16, which took place early Nov 2021, the UNH-IOL had begun forming new test plans & modifying our test tools to align with NVMe’s 2.0 refactoring. Plans that are not subject to change for refactoring are ZNS conformance, NVMe-MI conformance, NVMe interoperability, and NVMe-oF interoperability; though it’s important to note these will likely still require new tests and edits in the future. Additionally, the NVMe base conformance and NVMe-oF conformance will be further broken up into admin and I/O command sets. Ultimately, the tests will not change but rather be depicted differently in GUI through renumbering and breaking into different command sets and transports.
In regards to obtaining the IOL INTERACT™ software, you must be a member of the NVMe testing service: to learn more about being a member or gaining access to the tool, please visit our NVMe testing page.