Test run: Perform configuration tests using Virtual server, part 1th

In this month's column, I'll show you how to perform software configuration tests using Microsoft®virtual Server. Configuration testing is a common term that involves testing a software system for different hardware and software combinations. The traditional way to perform software configuration testing is to create a lab with multiple physical machines that run different operating systems, Web browsers, and other software. This is extremely costly and time-consuming. Fortunately, virtual Server allows certain types of software configuration tests to be performed by creating multiple virtual machines on a single physical machine.

In my discussions with my colleagues, I found that you had little knowledge of many of the techniques used to perform configuration tests using Virtual Server, so I decided to give a complete overview of the process. This month's column is designed for beginners, so I assume you have no experience with Virtual Server.

The screenshot in Figure 1 shows several key concepts for performing configuration testing using Virtual Server. It shows the process of testing a DLL file on a windows®2000 Professional machine. The physical machine runs Windows server®2008, which is called a host in Virtual Server terminology. In the background, Virtual Server runs as a Windows service on the host. The virtual machine instance running Windows Professional is called the guest machine and is managed using a web-based interface. In this example, I run only one guest machine, but if needed, multiple guest machines can be run concurrently on the host computer.

Figure 1 Performing a configuration test using Virtual Server

In the guest machine, you can see that I have the following three windows open: Two instances of Window Explorer and one command shell. The previous instance of Windows Explorer points to \\WIN-6IN7WRUV5QY\Public (which is a shared item on the host). The following instance of Windows Explorer points to C:\Tests (which is a directory on the guest machine). In my scenario, I copied two test files (Testharness.js and TestData.txt) from the host to the guest machine. Then, perform a simple automated test on the guest machine for the drill DLL. Of course, I can perform any type of manual or automated test on the guest machine; The key is that I have a full-featured Windows 2000 machine that can test any type of target software.