The Benefit of Network (IP) Zoning in Executing Test Environments

One of the benefits of a virtual lab automation and management solution is the ability to execute a configuration (a multi-machine setup) multiple times in parallel, without making any changes to the base configuration. Let me explain through a couple of example scenarios:

  1. Do you want your test engineer to execute a test case – identify a bug – hand it over to developer and then continue with the testing? The developer can then execute a second instance of the test environment (the first being executed by the test engineer) – in parallel without disrupting the work of the test engineer.
  2. Do you want your test engineers to spawn test environment instances off a common base configuration – with each having their own instance, executing in parallel and each executing their own set of test cases?

The list will go on – where there is a fundamental need to execute a configuration several times in parallel without any IP or MAC address conflicts.

Virtual Lab Automation solutions like VMLogix LabManager offer the capability known as network (or IP) zoning. Take a look at the video below and see how easy it is to go about this. I run 2 instances of a multi-machine configuration in parallel — deploying both simultaneously without running into conflicts between the 2 deployed environments.

Brief demonstration of network (IP) zoning

Brief demonstration of network (IP) zoning

This movie requires Adobe Flash for playback.

Related Post: Test environment network configurations made easy with virtual lab automation

Bookmark and Share

One Response to “The Benefit of Network (IP) Zoning in Executing Test Environments”

  1. Contrasting the Management of Virtualized Test Lab and Production Environments « Virtual Lab Automation Blog Says:

    [...] The Benefit of Network (IP) Zoning in Executing Test Environments [...]

Leave a Reply