EdenTree bears fruit for lab automation

If it works, go ahead and fix it. That was the philosophy behind EdenTree Technologies’ introduction of a completely re-architected product today that better automates the network lab environment for equipment manufacturers and service providers.

EdenTree’s Lab Manager 5.0 network lab automation software now includes features such as event-based scheduling, a Web interface, and integrated power control. It also expanded the number of operating systems it supports by adding Linux and Unix support as well as the aforementioned Web interface for remote access to the management interface.

“It is a major change for us, taking our flagship product and completely re-architecting it,” said Roberta Gonzalez, co-founder and vice president of marketing and business development at EdenTree. “The new product is much more scalable, robust and modular and allows us to provide the future functionality our customers need.”

Lab Manager interconnects with and manages the physical layer infrastructure to which test equipment and devices under test (DUT) are connected. Its software-controlled lab environment allows engineers to remotely design, schedule and implement test topologies.

“This absolutely turns up their automation efficiency a notch because they no longer have to halt automated testing to change a physical configuration,” Gonzalez said.

The scheduler is a new feature that allows topologies, configurations, and test scripts to be scheduled not deterministically by setting a time, but by putting the scenario in queue and allowing the system to determine when all the necessary resources for a given test are available with sufficient time to run it.

It has a search function to find available devices, and a reporting system that tracks device utilization. Because it is integrated with a wide range of switches, Lab Manager works in any lab with any devices and any interface types, including: POTS/analog, T1/E1, DS3/E3, any rate Ethernet, Optical, Fibre Channel, and RF/Coax interfaces.

“A lot of people do test automation, but we are taking the monolithic test bed that exists today and turning it on its side to allow othe test bed itself to be automated,” Gonzalez said. “Engineers can now look at all the resources in the lab and create the topology they need in order to do any test.”

The new version of Lab Manager also is integrated with power controllers that allow test engineers to control power cycling and system rebooting and integrate with the GUI or script control of test topologies. The software supports power controllers from leading vendors, including APC, Cyberswitching Inc., MRV Communications, Server Technology and WTI.

The new architecture also touts a new modular design that allows customers to add modules for enhanced configuration management or asset management.

EdenTree’s Lab Manager is used by companies such as Cisco Systems, Hitachi Data Systems and Verizon. The company also lists AT&T, BellSouth and SBC among its customers.

Gonzalez sees an upside to the consolidation among some of these companies. “Consolidation only increases interest in our kind of solution,” she said. “Their labs have not been consolidated. There are still many labs within those organizations that, more so now that they are consolidating, have major initiatives underway to get people out of those labs through automation. It’s kind of a zero-touch approach.”