DETIK: DevOps e2e Testing in Kubernetes

This repository provides utilities to execute end-to-end tests of applications in Kubernetes clusters. This includes performing actions on the cluster (with kubectl, oc - for OpenShift - or helm) and verifying assertions by using a natural language, or almost. This reduces the amount of advanced bash commands to master.

This kind of test is the ultimate set of verifications to run for a project, long after unit and integration tests. In fact, it is the last part of a pipeline for a project or a Helm package. The major assumption done here is that you have a test cluster, or at least a non-production one, to execute these tests.

This tooling is inspired from Pierre Mavro's article, in particular for the BATS approach. However, it has the ambition of making such tests more simple to write. And it does not deal with the deployment of a K8s cluster.

Objectives
Examples
Usage
Syntax Reference
Errors
Beyond K8s assertions

Objectives

Execute Helm / kubectl / oc commands and verify assertions on their output.
- Example: get the right number of POD, make sure they are READY, etc.
Execute application scenarios:
- Example: access a login page and follow a complex UI scenario (e.g. with Selenium).
- Example: simulate events (e.g. the loss of a POD instance) and verify everything keeps on working.
- Example: be able to play performance tests for a given configuration.
Organize all the tests in scenarios.
Obtain an execution report at the end.

Examples

Test files and result

This section shows how to write unit tests using this library and BATS.

#!/usr/bin/env bats

load "lib/utils"
load "lib/detik"

DETIK_CLIENT_NAME="kubectl"

@test "verify the deployment" {
	
	run kubectl apply -f my-big-deployment-file.yml
	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
	
	sleep 20
	
	run verify "there are 2 pods named 'nginx'"
	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
	
	run verify "there is 1 service named 'nginx'"
	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
	
	run try "at most 5 times every 30s to find 2 pods named 'nginx' with 'status' being 'running'"
	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
	
	run try "at most 5 times every 30s to get pods named 'nginx' and verify that 'status' is 'running'"
	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
}


@test "verify the undeployment" {
	
	run kubectl delete -f my-big-deployment-file.yml
	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
	
	sleep 20
	
	run try "at most 5 times every 5s to find 0 pod named 'nginx' with 'status' being 'running'"
	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
	
	run verify "there is 0 service named 'nginx'"
	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
}

Executing bats my-tests.bats would result in the following output...

bats my-tests.bats
1..2
✓ 1 verify the deployment
✓ 2 verify the undeployment

The command "bats my-tests.bats" exited with 0.

In case of error, it would show...

bats my-tests.bats
1..2
✗ 1 verify the deployment
    (in test file my-tests.bats, line 14)
     `[ "$status" -eq 0 ]' failed
 
✓ 2 verify the undeployment

The command "bats my-tests.bats" exited with 1.

Since this project works with BATS, you can use setup and teardown functions to prepare and clean after every test in a file.

Working with Kubectl or OC commands

If you are working with a native Kubernetes cluster.

load "lib/utils"
load "lib/detik"

# The client function
DETIK_CLIENT_NAME="kubectl"

# If you want to work in a specific namespace.
# If not set, queries will be run in the default namespace.
DETIK_CLIENT_NAMESPACE="my-specific-namespace"

# Verify the number of PODS and services
verify "there are 2 pods named 'nginx'"
verify "there is 1 service named 'nginx'"

# Verify assertions on resources
verify "'status' is 'running' for pods named 'nginx'"
verify "'port' is '8484' for services named 'nginx'"
verify "'.spec.ports[*].targetPort' is '8484' for services named 'nginx'"

# You can also specify a number of attempts
try "at most 5 times every 30s to get pods named 'nginx' and verify that 'status' is 'running'"
try "at most 5 times every 30s to get svc named 'nginx' and verify that '.spec.ports[*].targetPort' is '8484'"

# Long assertions can also be split over several lines
try "at most 5 times every 30s " \
    "to get svc named 'nginx' " \
    "and verify that '.spec.ports[*].targetPort' is '8484'"
    
# You can also use an altered syntax, without global quotes.
# Be careful, you must then add double quotes around single ones.
try at most 5 times every 30s \
    to get svc named "'nginx'" \
    and verify that "'.spec.ports[*].targetPort'" is "'8484'"

# Regular expressions can also be used
try at most 5 times every 30s \
	to get svc named 'nginx' \
	and verify that '.spec.ports[*].targetPort' matches '[[:digit:]]+'

If you work with OpenShift and would prefer to use oc instead of kubectl...

load "lib/utils"
load "lib/detik"

# The client function
DETIK_CLIENT_NAME="oc"

# Verify the number of PODS and services
verify "there are 2 pods named 'nginx'"

Other Examples

Examples are available under the eponym directory.
It includes...

Library usage
Tests for a Helm package
Pipeline / CI integrations

Usage

Manual Setup

Install BATS, a testing framework for scripts.
BATS is a test framework for BASH and other scripts.
Download the lib/detik.bash script.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bats-core/bats-detik/master/lib/detik.bash
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bats-core/bats-detik/master/lib/linter.bash
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bats-core/bats-detik/master/lib/utils.bash
chmod +x *.bash

Write BATS scripts with assertions.
Make sure they import the lib/utils.bash and lib/detik.bash files.
Import the lib/linter.bash file to verify the linting of DETIK assertions.
Use the BATS command to run your tests: bats sources/tests/main.bats

Docker Setup

This project does not provide any official Docker image.
This is because you may need various clients (kubectl, oc, kustomize... whatever) and it all depends on your requirements.

A sample Dockerfile is provided in this project.
To build a Docker image from it:

# Tag it with LATEST
docker build -t bats/bats-detik:LATEST .

# Overwrite the default versions
docker build \
	--build-arg KUBECTL_VERSION=v1.21.2 \
	--build-arg HELM_VERSION=v3.6.1 \
	--build-arg BATS_VERSION=1.3.0 \
	-t bats/bats-detik:LATEST \
	.

On a development machine, you can use it this way:

# Run the image with a volume for your project.
# In this example, we show how to specify the proxy
# if your organization is using one.
docker run -ti \
	-v $(pwd):/home/testing/sources \
	-e http_proxy="proxy.local:3128" \
	-e https_proxy="proxy.local:3128" \
	bats-detik:LATEST

# Log into the cluster
echo "It all depends on your cluster configuration"

# Export the namespace for Helm (v2)
# export TILLER_NAMESPACE=<your namespace>

# Execute the tests
bats sources/tests/main.bats

It can also be used in a continuous integration platform.

Continuous Integration

An example is given for Jenkins in the examples.
The syntax is quite simple and may be easily adapted for other solutions, such as GitLab CI, Tracis CI, etc.

Syntax Reference

Counting Resources

Verify there are N resources of this type with this name pattern.

# Expecting 0 or 1 instance
verify "there is <0 or 1> <resource-type> named '<regular-expression>'"

# Expecting more than 1 instance
verify "there are <number> <resource-type> named '<regular-expression>'"

resource-type is one of the K8s ones (e.g. pods, po, services, svc...).
See https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/overview/#resource-types for a complete reference.

⚠️ This simple assertion may fail sometimes.

As an example, if you count the number of PODs, run your test and then kill the POD, they will still be listed, with the TERMINATING state.

So, most of the time, you will want to verify the number of instances with a given property value. Example: count the number of PODs with a given name pattern and having the started status.

Hence this additional syntax (using next section documentation to verify additionnal properties):

# Expecting a given number of instances
try "at most <number> times every <number>s \
	to find <number> <resource-type> named '<regular-expression>' \
	with '<property-name>' being '<expected-value>'"

📌 This assertion is useful for PODs, whose life cycle changes take time.
For services, you may directly use the simple count assertions.

This is a checking loop. It breaks the loop if as soon as the assertion is verified. If it reaches the end of the loop without having been verified, an error is thrown. Please, refer to this section for details about the property names.

Verifying Property Values

Verify the property of a set of resources of this type with this name pattern.

verify "'<property-name>' is '<expected-value>' for <resource-type> named '<regular-expression>'"

Attempt to verify the property of a set of resources of this type with this name pattern.

try "at most <number> times every <number>s \
	to get <resource-type> named '<regular-expression>' \
	and verify that '<property-name>' is '<expected-value>'"

This is a checking loop.
It breaks the loop if as soon as the assertion is verified. If it reaches the end of the loop without having been verified, an error is thrown. Please, refer to this section for details about the property names.

📝 This assertion verifies all the instances have this property value. But unlike the assertion type to count resources, you do not verify how many instances have this value. Notice however that if it finds 0 item verifying the property, the assertion fails.

Using Regular Expressions

It is also possible to verify property values against a regular expression.
This can be used, as an example, to verify values in a JSON array.

# Verifying a property
verify "'<property-name>' matches '<regular-experession>' for <resource-type> named '<regular-expression>'"

# Finding elements with a matching property
try "at most <number> times every <number>s \
	to get <resource-type> named '<regular-expression>' \
	and verify that '<property-name>' matches '<regular-experession>'"

# Counting elements with a matching property
try "at most <number> times every <number>s \
	to find <number> <resource-type> named '<regular-expression>' \
	with '<property-name>' matching '<regular-expression>'"

The regular expression used for property values relies on BASH regexp. More exactly, it uses extended regular expressions (EREs). You can simulate the result of such an assertion with grep, as it is the command used internally. Hence, you can use echo your-value | grep -E your-regex to prepare your assertions.

Unlike the assertions with the verb « to be », those with the verb « to match » are case-sensitive.

All the assertions using the verb « to be » make case-insensitive comparison.
It means writing is 'running' or is 'Running' does not change anything. If you want case-sensitive equality, then use a regular expression, i.e. write matches '^Running$'.

If for some reasons, one needs case-insensitive matches, you can set the DETIK_CASE_INSENSITIVE_PROPERTIES property to true in your test. All the retrieved values by the DETIK_CLIENT will be lower-cased. It means you can write a pattern that only considers lower-case characters. The following sample illustrates this situation:

# Assuming the status of the POD is "Running"...
# ... then the following assertion will fail.
verify "'status' matches 'running' for pods named 'nginx'"

# Same for...
verify "'status' matches '^running$' for pods named 'nginx'"

# This is because the value returned by the client starts with an upper-case letter.
# For case-insensivity operations with a regular expression, just use...
DETIK_CASE_INSENSITIVE_PROPERTIES="true"
verify "'status' matches 'running' for pods named 'nginx'"

# The assertion will now be verified.
# Just make sure the pattern ONLY INCLUDES lower-case characters.

# If you set DETIK_CASE_INSENSITIVE_PROPERTIES directly in a "@test" function,
# there is no need to reset it for the other tests. Its scope is limited to the
# function that defines it. It is recommended to NOT make this variable a global one.

Property Names

In all assertions, property-name is one of the column names supported by K8s.
See https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/overview/#custom-columns
You can also find column names by using kubectl get <resource-type> -o custom-columns=ALL:*.

To ease the writing of assertions, some aliases are proposed by the library.

Alias	Target Property	Useful For
status	.status.phase	PODS
port	.spec.ports[*].port	Services
targetPort	.spec.ports[*].targetPort	Services

Other aliases may appear later.

Errors

Error Codes

All the functions rely on the same convention.

Exit Code	Meaning
0	Everything is fine.
1	The query for the function was empty.
2	The query did not respect the syntax.
3	The assertion could not be verified when the function returned. It may also indicate an error with the K8s client.

Debugging Tests

There is a debug function in DETIK.
You can use it in your own tests. Debug traces are stored into /tmp/detik/. There is one debug file per test file.

It is recommended to reset this file at the beginning of every test file.

#!/usr/bin/env bats

load "lib/utils"
load "lib/detik"


# Improve readability of the debug file
setup() {
	debug ""
	debug  ""
	debug  "-- $BATS_TEST_DESCRIPTION --"
	debug  ""
	debug  ""
}


@test "reset the debug file" {
	# This function is part of DETIK too
	reset_debug
}


@test "run my first test" {

	# Make an assertion and output the result in the debug file.
	run verify ...
	debug "Command output is: $output"
	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
	
	# ...
}

DETIK debug messages are silenced by default.
To enable them, you have to set the DEBUG_DETIK variable. In addition to your own debug traces, you will see the ones from DETIK and/or its linter.

Here is an example showing how to debug DETIK with a test.

# Enable the debug flag
DEBUG_DETIK="true"
run verify "'status' is 'running' for pods named 'nginx'"

# Even if you did not log anything, DETIK did.
# Find the debug file under /tmp/detik.

# Reset the debug flag
DEBUG_DETIK=""

Linting

Despite the efforts to make the DETIK syntax as simple as possible, BASH remains a non-compiled language and mistakes happen. To prevent them, a linter was created to help locating syntax errors when writing DETIK assertions. You can use it with BATS in your tests.

#!/usr/bin/env bats
load "lib/utils"
load "lib/linter"

@test "lint assertions" {

	run lint "tests/my-tests-1.bats"
	# echo -e "$output" > /tmp/errors.txt
	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
	
	run lint "tests/my-tests-2.bats"
	# echo -e "$output" > /tmp/errors.txt
	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
}

Tips

Do not use file descriptors 3 and 4 in your tests.
They are already used by BATS. And 0, 1 and 2 are default file descriptors. Use 5, 6 and higher values.

Beyond K8s assertions

End-to-end tests may involve much more than K8s assertions.
BATS and DETIK can be combined with other testing frameworks, such as performance tests (e.g. with Gatling and JMeter) or functional scenarios with user interactions (e.g. with Selenium, Cypress or Robot Framework).

To do so, you would need to have these tools colocated (in a same VM, container or POD). Your BATS scenarios would then invoke the various tools and verify assertions with BATS. Sky is the limit then: it all depends on what you want to test.

bats-core/bats-detik

bats-core

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