The following simple illustration portrays your test configuration:
Test configuration using an agent

This illustration is included to help you understand which parts of the test process run on which JVMs. This is important to understand when you configure the classpath for each of the JVMs. The Configuration Editor does as much as it can to set the classpaths correctly, but if you get errors about classes not being found, check that the classpaths are set correctly.

The circles represent processes and the boxes represent systems:

Processes are started as needed depending on the type of compiler test:
Test Type Description
Negative Only the Java compiler is started, the compiler is expected to fail and produce an error. A new compiler is started for every test.
Positive (Java) A new Java compiler is started for every test -- output of the compiler is always checked using a fresh version of the reference VM.
Positive (RMI) New Java and RMI compilers are started for every test -- output of the compilers is always checked using a fresh version of the reference VM.