Consul is a distributed, highly available, and data center aware solution to connect and configure applications across dynamic, distributed infrastructure.
These peering tests all use a `commonTopo` (read: "common topology") to enable sharing a deployment of a Consul. Sharing a deployment of Consul cuts down on setup time.
The tests in question are designed in a manner that modifies the topology. As a result, it is not possible to share the testing environment across these tests.
## Shared CommonTopo Tests
The tests in question are designed in a manner that does not modify the topology in any way that would interfere with other tests. As a result, it is possible to share the testing environment across these tests.
To run all consul peering tests with no shared topology, run the following command:
```
cd /path/to/peering_commontopo
go test -timeout=10m -v -no-share-topo .
```
To run all peering tests with shared topology only:
```
cd /path/to/peering_commontopo
go test -timeout=10m -run '^TestSuitesOnSharedTopo' -v .
```
To run individual peering topology tests:
```
cd /path/to/peering_commontopo
go test -timeout=10m -run '^TestSuiteExample' -v -no-share-topo .
```
## Local Development and Testing
If writing tests for peering with no shared topology, this recommendation does not apply. The following methods below not necessarily need to be implmented. For shared topology tests, all the methods in the `sharedTopoSuite` interface must be implemented.
-`testName()` prepends the test suite name to each test in the test suite.
Common topology peering tests are defined in the [test-integ/peering_commontopo/](/test-integ/peering_commontopo/) directory and new peering integration tests should always be added to this location. Adding integration tests that does not modify the topology should always start by invoking
Some of these tests *do* mutate in their `test()` phase, and while they use `commonTopo` for the purpose of code sharing, they are not included in the "shared topo" tests in `sharedtopology_test.go`.