Re: What have your experiences been w/ VMWare ...
- From: "Jeff H" <VindicatorJ@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 30 Jun 2006 14:48:10 -0700
Up on a soapbox:
Knowledge of VMWare is an absolute must.
No other single tool has saved more man hours in my team than VMWare.
I'm not tied to vmware, I'll try MS virtual server, someday, when I
have time, and XEN too.
For now, I have vmware workstation, it does a slick job, and I don't
have time to invest in any other tool.
I have had a few problems:
Leave extra space on the Host harddrive.
Think of snapshots as a short term thing, not long term.
If you think snapshots are a way to store diffent environments that you
might need 'someday', you'll soon find your host has run out of space.
If you have environments that you might need someday, shut down the VM,
Copy the VM folder, and burn it to a DVD. Then move on.
On the flip side, if you need to do the same test 50 times, from the
same starting point: A snapshot will make this week long process a
half day process.
I can put a new VM on 10 machines in an hour, without breaking a sweat.
Our IT pros couldn't reinstall the OS on 3 machines in an hour. Think
about that. Fresh, clean environment in 6 minutes, Cool huh. I can
even automate it with simple Batch files, and do it at 3 AM so its
ready to run when the testers come in.
I have a VM with SQL Server and Progress server (another RDBMS), Win2K
server, Norton enterprise, IE 6, and ALL the Service packs, and our
propriatary apps. It takes about 13-20 minutes to get up and running.
It took a week to build. Of course there is the machine rename, SQL
server Rename and other little tidbits as part of the deployment time.
I have used it with the VMWare Player, concurrently on three
machines(After renaming the machine and SQL Server, of course),
effectively making 3 machines into 6.
I personally don't wait for anything anymore. For the first time there
are enough machines in the lab. While one environment is installing,
I'm getting the next going.
I have run AutomatedQA's TestComplete evaulation version within a VM
without any issue.
Things I would Add or change....
Make the VMWare Tools more compatable / easer to install in LINUX.
Make VMWare player/Virtual Machine more/better aware of HD limitations
of the host.
Provide scripting for machine name change.
Provide Hardware drivers for a Modem, that tunnels all data realtime to
the VM with no loss.
Jeff H
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: What have your experiences been w/ VMWare ...
- From: Michael Bolton
- Re: What have your experiences been w/ VMWare ...
- Next by Date: Re: Any good books for Software Testing Methodology?
- Next by thread: Re: What have your experiences been w/ VMWare ...
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
