Smoke Testing

This term typically refers to a testing methodology which validates critical or crucial functionality of software. Versions of AnchoreCTL post-5.6.0 include a smoke-tests option, which can be used to validate general functionality of your Anchore Enterprise.

We recommend using this mechanism to validate functionality after upgrades.

Tip: the test check-admin-credentials will look for an admin user in the admin account context as defined in your anchorectl.yaml

anchorectl system smoke-tests run
...
 ✔ Ran smoke tests
┌───────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────┬────────┬────────┐
│ NAME                                  │ DESCRIPTION                                     │ RESULT │ STDERR │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ wait-for-system                       │ Wait for the system to be ready                 │ pass   │        │
│ check-admin-credentials               │ Check anchorectl credentials to run smoke tests │ pass   │        │
│ create-test-account                   │ Create a test account                           │ pass   │        │
│ list-test-policies                    │ List the test policies                          │ pass   │        │
│ get-test-policy                       │ Get the test policy                             │ pass   │        │
│ activate-test-default-policy          │ Activate the test default policy                │ pass   │        │
│ create-test-image                     │ Create a test image and wait for analysis       │ pass   │        │
│ get-test-image                        │ Get the test image                              │ pass   │        │
│ activate-test-subscription            │ Activate a test subscription                    │ pass   │        │
│ get-test-subscription                 │ Get the test subscription                       │ pass   │        │
│ deactivate-test-vuln-subscription     │ Deactivate the vuln subscription                │ pass   │        │
│ deactivate-test-policy-subscription   │ Deactivate the policy subscription              │ pass   │        │
│ deactivate-test-tag-subscription      │ Deactivate the tag subscription                 │ pass   │        │
│ deactivate-test-analysis-subscription │ Deactivate the analysis subscription            │ pass   │        │
│ check-test-image                      │ Check the test image                            │ pass   │        │
│ get-test-image-vulnerabilities        │ Get the test image vulnerabilities              │ pass   │        │
│ delete-test-image                     │ Delete the test image                           │ pass   │        │
│ disable-test-account                  │ Disable the test account                        │ pass   │        │
│ delete-test-account                   │ Delete the test account                         │ pass   │        │
└───────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────┴────────┴────────┘

Troubleshooting Failing Steps

wait-for-system

Polls the API until the vulnerability feed reports as ready (300s timeout). Failure means: The data syncer cannot reach https://data.anchore-enterprise.com or feeds have not completed their initial sync.

  • Verify external connectivity: curl -v https://data.anchore-enterprise.com
  • Check feed sync status: anchorectl feed list
  • Check data syncer events: anchorectl event list --level error --service data_syncer
  • See Data Syncer Troubleshooting for deeper diagnosis of feed sync issues.

get-test-policy / activate-test-default-policy

Verifies the policy engine is functional and default policies exist. Failure means: Policy engine is unhealthy or feed data has not been loaded yet. These steps commonly fail as a cascade when wait-for-system also fails.

create-test-image / get-test-image / get-test-image-vulnerabilities

Submits a test image for analysis and verifies the full analysis pipeline. Failure means: The analyzer, catalog, or policy engine is not functioning correctly.

Note: all test resources (account, image) are cleaned up automatically at the end of the run.

Last modified April 16, 2026