NET/MASTER RMS Management and Operations Guide

8 Testing Rules Using Simulated
Events
115415 NonStop NET/MASTER RMS Management and Operations Guide 8–1
This section provides instructions on how to test your ruleset using simulated events
as follows:
Test rules by generating a simulated message.
Test rules by using a simulated message flow. The section explains how to capture
and save the real message flow on your system. You can use the saved messages
(modified if necessary) to test your rules.
Check the RMS timers that may be started by generating a simulated time event.
Using Simulated
Events
During the development of a ruleset, you need to test the rules in the ruleset to ensure
their correct operation before using the ruleset on your production systems. When
testing, you do not want to artificially generate real events that may affect the
operation of your system. RMS allows you to generate simulated events to test your
rulesets and rules. You can simulate messages and time events.
When you use simulated messages to test a ruleset, RMS starts an INT-type message
handler that uses the ruleset and sends your simulated messages to the handler. The
handler performs the actions according to the triggered rules. You can turn the
narrative feature on. This feature disables the rule actions using the control options of
the ruleset so that you can watch the operation of the rules without actually
performing the actions. RMS warns you if you enable certain types of rule actions
during simulation (for example, issuing a NonStop NET/MASTER MS command).
You can simulate a single message to test particular rules in a ruleset, or you can
simulate a message flow to test the whole ruleset.
When you use simulated time events to test time-based rules, RMS checks to see if any
RMS timers satisfy the time events. The timer driver does not start the RMS timers,
and no rule actions are performed.
Testing Rules Against
a Simulated Message
You can generate a simulated message to test particular rules in a ruleset. RMS starts
an INT-type message handler that uses the ruleset under test and sends your
simulated message to the handler. You can interactively change the rules in the ruleset
and the simulated message. Figure 8-1 shows the panels encountered when
generating a simulated message to test a ruleset.