Prerequisites
1. It is assumed that you already have test automation suite that produces test results in JUnit XML format.
For example this can be a bundle of Selenium RC and JUnit. Or Watir and Cucumber with JUnit-style reporter.
2. You need to create Ant project build.xml script that executes your test suite.
Materials: http://varun-qa.blogspot.com/2010/03/ant-script-for-generating-junit-report.html
Example (execution of Watir/Cucumber test suite on Windows):
3. It is assumed that your test automation suite is stored to Subversion or CVS server.
4. Download hudson.war from here: http://hudson-ci.org/latest/hudson.war
Steps
1. Go to the directory with downloaded hudson.war and run the following command: java -jar hudson.war
2. Open your browser and go to: http://localhost:8080/
3. Click "New Job" link on the left panel of Hudson dashboard
4. Enter job name (this can be anything using Latin symbols and not using any special characters)
5. Select "Build a free-style software project" option
6. Press OK button
7. Set the location of your test suite in "Repository URL" field of Subversion section
8. Set SVN credentials if needed
9. Set "." value in "Local module directory (optional)" field of Subversion section
10. Set "Build periodically" checkbox
11. Set "@midnight" value in "Schedule" field
12. Select Add build step -> Invoke Ant
13. Select the Ant target that runs your tests
14. Set checkbox in "Publish JUnit test result report" field
15. Set "out/reports/*.xml" value in "Test report XMLs" field
16. Set "Archive the artifacts" checkbox
17. Set "out/" value in "Files to archive" field
18. Press Save button
19. Press "Build Now" link on the left panel of Hudson dashboard
That's it! You have test results at Hudson dashboard, you have automatic updates of your test suite from SVN/CVS, you have scheduler, you have history from all previous test executions, sorted by date.