functional-tests

Functional Test Writing Guide

Overview

Functional tests run against a live Kubernetes cluster (kind) with the chart installed. Unlike chart tests (which only render templates), they verify real runtime behavior: that binaries are on PATH, that the right pip packages and versions are installed in the Airflow image, that the Airflow CLI can manage connections/variables, that a DAG can be triggered and runs to success, and that the statsd config is the Astronomer one.

All functional tests live in a single file: tests/functional/test_chart.py. They use testinfra to exec into running containers via the kubectl:// backend.

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Critical Rules

1. A cluster must be running with the chart installed before tests can pass — use bin/reset-local-dev (quick) or bin/run-ci (full CI flow).
2. The NAMESPACE env var selects the namespace the fixtures look in; it defaults to airflow when unset.
3. Run tests through the project's managed environment — uv run pytest, .venv/bin/python -m pytest, and .venv/bin/pytest are all valid (CI builds its own temp venv from tests/requirements.txt). Don't hand-roll a separate venv with pip install.
4. There is one installation (no unified/control/data scenarios) — everything is deployed into the airflow namespace.

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Local Setup Workflow

# 1. Build a fresh cluster and deploy the chart into the `airflow` namespace.
#    reset-local-dev -> bin/clean-slate (helm dep update, delete old kind cluster,
#    bin/start-kind-cluster) -> helm install.
bin/reset-local-dev           # honors $EXECUTOR, defaults to CeleryExecutor

# 2. Run the functional tests against the running cluster
export NAMESPACE=airflow
uv run pytest tests/functional/ -v

bin/reset-local-dev does a plain helm install suitable for iterating — it creates the cluster for you, so there is no separate cluster-creation step. The underlying bin/start-kind-cluster honors $KUBE_VERSION (default 1.31.6) for the kindest/node image and creates the airflow namespace.

For a faithful reproduction of CI — building the example_project image, loading it into kind, enabling pgbouncer, waiting for all pods to become ready, exporting NAMESPACE/SCHEDULER_POD/WEBSERVER_POD, and running the suite — use:

bin/run-ci                    # honors $EXECUTOR and $HELM_CHART_PATH

Choosing an executor (matters for which pods exist — e.g. workers/flower only exist for CeleryExecutor):

export EXECUTOR=KubernetesExecutor   # or CeleryExecutor (default), LocalExecutor

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Environment Variables

The fixtures and tests read these (set by bin/run-ci, or set them yourself when running ad hoc):

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Test Organization

tests/functional/
└── test_chart.py        # All functional tests + their pod fixtures

Tests and the fixtures they depend on currently live together in test_chart.py. If the file grows enough to warrant splitting, move the shared pod fixtures into a tests/functional/conftest.py first, then split tests by concern — but keep everything under tests/functional/.

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Pod Fixtures

Each fixture resolves a pod by the label selector component=<name> in $NAMESPACE (falling back to airflow), asserts at least one such pod exists, and yields a testinfra host bound to the relevant container via the kubectl:// backend. They are scope="session".

To add a fixture for another component, copy the existing pattern:

@pytest.fixture(scope="session")
def worker():
    """worker pod fixture."""
    if not (namespace := os.environ.get("NAMESPACE")):
        print("NAMESPACE env var is not present, using 'airflow' namespace")
        namespace = "airflow"
    kube = create_kube_client()
    pods = kube.list_namespaced_pod(namespace, label_selector="component=worker")
    assert len(pods.items) > 0, "Expected to find at least one pod with label 'component: worker'"
    pod = pods.items[0]
    yield testinfra.get_host(f"kubectl://{pod.metadata.name}?container=worker&namespace={namespace}")

create_kube_client() (defined in test_chart.py) loads kubeconfig via config.load_kube_config() and returns a CoreV1Api.

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Writing Tests

Assert a binary is on PATH

def test_airflow_in_path(webserver):
    """Ensure Airflow is in PATH"""
    assert webserver.exists("airflow"), "Expected 'airflow' to be in PATH"

Assert a file exists

def test_entrypoint(webserver):
    assert webserver.file("/entrypoint").exists, "Expected to find /entrypoint"

Assert an installed pip package version

from packaging.version import parse as semantic_version

def test_redis_version(webserver):
    redis_module = webserver.pip.get_packages()["redis"]
    version = redis_module["version"]
    assert semantic_version(version) != semantic_version("3.4.0"), "redis module must not be 3.4.0"

Run Airflow CLI commands

def test_airflow_variables(scheduler):
    """Test Variables can be added, retrieved and deleted"""
    assert "" in scheduler.check_output("airflow variables set test_key test_value")
    assert "test_value" in scheduler.check_output("airflow variables get test_key")
    assert "" in scheduler.check_output("airflow variables delete test_key")

check_output accepts printf-style args that testinfra quotes safely:

scheduler.check_output("airflow connections add --conn-uri %s %s", test_conn_uri, test_conn_id)

Inspect container config / image labels

def test_statsd(statsd):
    """Check statsd pod is using the Astronomer statsd config."""
    statsd_config = statsd.check_output("cat /etc/statsd-exporter/mappings.yml")
    assert "Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation" not in statsd_config
    assert "action: drop" in statsd_config

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Eventually-Consistent State

Some behavior (a DAG running to success, a pod becoming reachable) is not instantaneous. The existing DAG-trigger test polls airflow dags state ... in a loop with a timeout and dumps scheduler logs (via kubectl logs $SCHEDULER_POD) on failure. When you need to wait for convergence, prefer either:

• a bounded poll loop with a clear timeout (as test_airflow_trigger_dags does), or
• @pytest.mark.flaky(reruns=N, reruns_delay=S) for genuinely flaky reachability checks.

Use waiting/retries sparingly — only when the cluster genuinely needs time to converge.

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What NOT to Do

• Do not assume pods exist for every executor — workers and flower only exist under CeleryExecutor; gate or skip accordingly.
• Do not hardcode the namespace — read os.environ.get("NAMESPACE") and fall back to airflow, matching the existing fixtures.
• Do not hand-roll a separate venv with pip install; run through the repo's managed environment (uv run pytest tests/functional/ or .venv/bin/pytest tests/functional/).
• Do not add APC-style scenario directories (unified/, control/, data/) — this chart has a single installation.