one is my project, one is third program, how to write functional test

I write one server with python, but the client just one program(openvpn client), now it's black test time(I don't want to start server, config it every times), so should I write auto functional test for it, for example: 1: start server (on one test server) 2: config server 3: start client (on one test client, I can start it with execute remote ssh command) 4: test the connect from client (also ssh command) 5: close client and server 6: clean config files.

ps: Is there any IRC channel talk about testing? Thanks!