METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TESTING RAID SYSTEMS

An error injection test scripting system that permits a test engineer to select from a series of commands those that will induce a desired test scenario. These commands are presented to a parser, either in command line form or as a batch of commands, which parses the syntax of the commands and associated parameters, to create a task list which is communicated to a scheduler. The scheduler handles the execution of the tasks in the list, converts parameters to explicit logical block test sequences and maintains test results. Tasks such as error injection use a special protocol (which the unit under test must be able to understand and interpret) to circumvent standard bus and controller protocols, so that test data, such as corrupt parity or multiple hard error failures can be sent to the disks in the RAID system, while bypassing the RAID array management functions that would otherwise automatically correct or prevent the errors. The scenario of injected errors to be tested is then executed through a tester, the results are evaluated and posted back to the scheduler.