Presenting an interface to a computer system for use in conducting diagnostic tests

A computer system comprising:

• a plurality of physical hardware devices;
• a computer readable storage medium storing computer readable program code for performing diagnostics on the computer system;
• a processor executing the computer readable program code to:
• associate a plurality of logical devices with the plurality of physical hardware devices of the computer system;
• provide each logical device with a programmatic interface that abstractly reproduces a functionality of the associated physical hardware device represented by the logical device and insulates the logical device from device-specific particulars needed to communicate with the physical hardware device;
• associate each logical device with a translator that is capable of communicating with the physical hardware device associated with the logical device using the device-specific particulars needed to communicate with the physical hardware device;
• provide a set of rules that define the plurality of logical devices;
• associate each rule with a match value to rank the rules and determine a governing rule
• receive, from an application program, a call to the programmatic interface of a given logical device of the plurality of logical devices;
• issue, by the given logical device in response to the call, a request to the translator associated with the given logical device, to acquire a specific service that the translator associated with the given logical device is adapted to acquire from the physical hardware device associated with the given logical device;
• and
• control, by the translator associated with the given logical device in response to the request from the given logical device, the physical hardware device associated with the given logical device, so that the physical hardware device associated with the given logical device performs the specific service.

A computer program product for performing diagnostics on a computer system, the computer program product comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:
• computer readable program code configured to associate a plurality of logical devices with a plurality of physical hardware devices of the computer system;
• computer readable program code configured to provide each logical device with a programmatic interface that abstractly reproduces a functionality of the associated physical hardware device represented by the logical device and insulates the logical device from device-specific particulars needed to communicate with the physical hardware device;
• computer readable program code configured to associate each logical device with a translator that is capable of communicating with the physical hardware device associated with the logical device using the device-specific particulars needed to communicate with the physical hardware device;
• computer readable program code configured to provide a set of rules that define the plurality of logical devices;
• computer readable program code configured to associate each rule with a match value to rank the rules and determine a governing rule;
• computer readable program code configured to receive, from an application program, a call to the programmatic interface of a given logical device of the plurality of logical devices;
• computer readable program code configured to issue, by the given logical device in response to the call, a request to the translator associated with the given logical device, to acquire a specific service that the translator associated with the given logical device is adapted to acquire from the physical hardware device associated with the given logical device;
• and
• computer readable program code configured to control, by the translator associated with the logical device in response to the request, the physical hardware device associated with the logical device, so that the physical hardware device performs the specific service.

A method for performing diagnostics on a computer system having a plurality of physical hardware devices, the method comprising:

• generating a physical device tree comprised of physical hardware devices known within the computer system;
• defining logical devices based on the physical device tree and in accordance with a predefined set of rules, each logical device representing one or more of the physical hardware devices;
• associating each logical device with at least one translator that provides a functionality of that logical device and communicates with a given physical hardware device represented by that logical device;
• and
• testing each physical hardware device by submitting function calls to each logical device representing that physical hardware device and by each logical device calling the at least one translator associated with that logical device in response to the submitted function calls in order to communicate with that physical hardware device.