Patent ID: 8645926

Claim:
A testing system for a system management program, wherein the testing system comprises a server with one or more repeaters connected thereto; and one or more recipient devices and emulating devices connected to the repeaters, the emulating devices being configured to emulate the one or more of the recipient devices, comprising: the server is configured to determine a first class of devices on whom a system management operation is to be performed, determine a second class of devices on whom the system management operation is to be performed, the second class of devices being emulated by one or more emulating devices, set a flag in one or more messages to be issued by the server, wherein the flag indicates whether the intended recipient of the message is a device in the first class or the second class, and issue the messages; the repeaters are configured to direct the messages whose flags indicate that the intended recipients are members of the first class, to devices that are members of the first class, determine an appropriate emulating device to which to send the messages whose flags indicate that the intended recipients are members of the second class, and send the messages to the emulating devices determined therefore, wherein determining an appropriate emulating device comprises: using at least one internal table in the one or more repeater devices to find, from a plurality of software tools maintained by the one or more of the repeater devices, an appropriate software tool for the operation specified in the message; and requesting the appropriate software tool to forward the messages to the emulation devices; the recipient devices are configured to execute a system management operation included in a message from the server on receipt of the message by the recipient devices; the emulating devices are configured simulate execution of the system management operation included in a message from the server on receipt of the message by the emulation devices; and wherein the recipient devices and emulating devices are further configured to generate a report detailing the outcome of the system management operation and transmit the report to the server.