Patent ID: 6898184

Claim:
A method for testing a multi-device enclosure that contains multiple devices and at least one processor, the method comprising: controlling a number of bypass circuits to bypass a number of external communications medium connectors to isolate the multi-device enclosure from an external communications medium; internally testing the multi-device enclosure by running a self-test routine on an internal processor by controlling a number of bypass circuits to isolate the devices from an internal communications medium; testing the internal communications medium; when the internal communications medium passes the testing, for each device, controlling a bypass circuit to connect the device to the internal communications medium, testing the device, and when the device fails testing, controlling a bypass circuit to disconnect the device from the internal communications medium, and returning an indication that the testing of the multi-device enclosure has succeeded; when the internal communications medium fails the testing, returning an indication that the testing of the multi-device enclosure has failed; and when the multi-device enclosure passes the testing, controlling a number of bypass circuits to connect the number of external communications medium connectors to the external communications medium.