Hi All,
Development of high quality software requires testing. A lot of testings. Usually it requires verifying the new software version on a large number of operating systems. Moreover, if your software system had miles on the road, you usually need to support several previous versions of the software system.
How do handle this large number of servers each required to handle each version, test scenario and operating system? If you are using test driven development it probably even harder... You should every time get back to the base version...
Few years ago, the only option to support such a case scenario was having a large server farm, where servers are restored from backup in the end of each test. The bottom line: this old fashion solution required significant equity and a lot of manual work to perform.
Virtualization changed the market. On a single physical server you can load several logical machines and perform tests. Moreover, if don't need to verify some of the tested versions, you can avoid turning on these logical machines. You thought it could not get better? since virtualization platforms enable getting back to defined points in time, a.k.a checkpoints, you could restore base version by a simple click! The bottom line: virtualization enables software developers and ISVs cut their costs and manual work and get much more using few machines.
These days you can even get better. Using CLI you can automate this process, raise your logical machines just before starting the build and tests, and restore to the relevant checkpoint automatically. More information can be found in Jani Järvinen's article.
What about doing all these testing and performing all these tests automatically without a single penny NRE? Yes we can! using cloud computing can perform all of these by just paying for the used CPU hours and a neglectable payment for the on going storage. Cloud computing providers such as Amazon EC2, Flexiscale and AppNexus enables you allocate servers on demand, attach to them a snapshot and start running your test in short time. Did you know that in just 10 USD you can perform a one hour test cycle on 30 different machines?
During our development when we need to simulate software systems which handle hundreds of millions of events per day. Since several software engineers work on the same project and sometimes on the same file, we need to make several builds every day, in order to make sure that the end of day version will be stable. we found these methods useful. Hope it help you as well.
Best Regards,
Moshe
RockeTier
Development of high quality software requires testing. A lot of testings. Usually it requires verifying the new software version on a large number of operating systems. Moreover, if your software system had miles on the road, you usually need to support several previous versions of the software system.
How do handle this large number of servers each required to handle each version, test scenario and operating system? If you are using test driven development it probably even harder... You should every time get back to the base version...
Few years ago, the only option to support such a case scenario was having a large server farm, where servers are restored from backup in the end of each test. The bottom line: this old fashion solution required significant equity and a lot of manual work to perform.
Virtualization changed the market. On a single physical server you can load several logical machines and perform tests. Moreover, if don't need to verify some of the tested versions, you can avoid turning on these logical machines. You thought it could not get better? since virtualization platforms enable getting back to defined points in time, a.k.a checkpoints, you could restore base version by a simple click! The bottom line: virtualization enables software developers and ISVs cut their costs and manual work and get much more using few machines.
These days you can even get better. Using CLI you can automate this process, raise your logical machines just before starting the build and tests, and restore to the relevant checkpoint automatically. More information can be found in Jani Järvinen's article.
What about doing all these testing and performing all these tests automatically without a single penny NRE? Yes we can! using cloud computing can perform all of these by just paying for the used CPU hours and a neglectable payment for the on going storage. Cloud computing providers such as Amazon EC2, Flexiscale and AppNexus enables you allocate servers on demand, attach to them a snapshot and start running your test in short time. Did you know that in just 10 USD you can perform a one hour test cycle on 30 different machines?
During our development when we need to simulate software systems which handle hundreds of millions of events per day. Since several software engineers work on the same project and sometimes on the same file, we need to make several builds every day, in order to make sure that the end of day version will be stable. we found these methods useful. Hope it help you as well.
Best Regards,
Moshe
RockeTier
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