Distribute hardware testing

[alessand...@qbrobotics.com]

I'd like to do what follows, but I don't know if it is easy to setup Jenkins to do so:

• Run Jenkins from a virtual machine on a server (locate in room A);
  
• Connect many serial HW devices to a non intelligent system located in room B and connected to the local network (therefore to the server), e.g. a switch or something similar which provides USB connection;
  
• Schedule periodic tests that involves the connected devices, e.g. request a service from a device and wait for its responce.
  
• Schedule other tests that involves only the SW.
  

I am wondering if this setup could be easily configurated or it is far better to connect the devices directly to the server (or to the machine running Jenkins).

[alessand...@qbrobotics.com]

I don't know if it is completely clear.

I would like to know whether is possible to remap remote usb ports (e.g. my_remote_host@/dev/ttyUSB*) to be used as local usb ports on the server running Jenkins. Otherwise I think the only other distribute solution is to set up a Jenkins slave on a remote PC and build remote jobs from there. In this case it should see the local usb ports correctly.