QA Lab

Hardware:

We keep our QA Lab up-to-date with the latest hardware, while retaining (and often re-purposing) old hardware for compatibility, performance, and usability testing.

• 28 Windows PCs, with varying motherboards, NICs, graphics cards, etc. Processors range from Intel Pentium 366 through the latest Intel Core2Quad line, as well as various AMD processor options.
• 24 MacOS machines from 1st-generation iMacs to the latest Mac Pro Intel-powered machines.
• 100Mbps network isolated from the company network by a firewall and an available proxy server.
• Wide variety of network hardware.
• Wide variety of external peripherals (USB devices, printers, etc.).
• Numerous ISP’s including AOL, Qwest, SAVVIS, Earthlink.
• Numerous network connections including dial-up, DSL, and T1.
• A variety of network hubs, switches, routers, and wireless access points.

QA Tools:

We maintain a collection of proven QA tools for management, benchmarking, and automated testing. We only use the tools we absolutely need, and only when they will measurably improve the testing effort-there is no one-size-fits-all QA tool, nor do we attempt to substitute tool proficiency for testing expertise. Our testers are our greatest asset, and we expect them to use tools as needed.

• NTttcp, DUMeter-Windows network benchmarking tools.
• NetPIPE-Linux/OS X network performance monitor.
• dummynet-Networking protocol/bandwidth management tool.
• Install Analyzer-Windows configuration comparison/installer standards tool.
• Symantec Ghost-Windows/Linux drive imaging/restore tool.
• Carbon Copy Cloner, Apple Software Restore-Mac drive imaging/restore tools.

CPS Ghost process:

Our QA lab philosophy is to have a flexible and controllable test bed. Because we take on so many different types of projects, we must be prepared to alter configurations on-the-fly for new projects or test cases. This is why our lab setup relies heavily on the Symantec Ghost tool-it enables us to quickly and accurately restore multiple machines at once to clean images or custom configurations (for example, we can restore an entire domain including controller and pre-configured clients in less than an hour).

• All images are stored on a central server located inside the QA firewall.
• Server is backed up daily.
• Each machine has an associated network boot disk which automatically runs Ghost.exe and connects to the Ghost image server.
• Can restore any Windows or Linux image to its associated box in 15 minutes or less, depending on processor and NIC speeds.
• Variety of images in multiple languages and a variety of service packs and software updates installed

Case Study: A major vendor of Voice over IP (VOIP) products needed a completive analysis performed. CPS/QA setup an isolated lab that provided the team with the environment necessary to control packet loss, bandwidth, and platform to create consistent tests for each competitive product. The following describes the test setup that we had in place within a couple of days.

Equipment Used
BSD Bridge Software: dummynet
NAT router 1: Linksys BEFW11S4 v.2
NAT router 2: DLink DI-604 Internet Gateway
10bT Hub: Asante 10T Hub/8
100bT Switch: Netgear FS 105
DSL Modem: ActionTec 1524SU

Client (A)

• AMD-64 2000mhz (3200+)
• 1024M RAM
• 3Com Gigabit LOM (3c940)
• SoundMAX Integrated Audio
• Windows XP Home

Client (B)

• AMD XP 1600Mhz (1900+)
• 256 RAM
• Intel InBuisness 10/100 Adapter
• Aureal Vortex 8830 (Vortex 2)

Test Network Diagram

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