1. Introduction Doing QA is a pain, but we must do it, otherwise we cannot mark as release without QA process :) Thus QA process is very very important. Automated qatesttool reduces the cost of doing QA, but still pain for me. I'm very lazy person;) But counting numbers of how many tests are required, Full release - I mean three platforms GNU/Linux, Solaris i386/sparc, Windows with JRE or without JRE, MacOSX two packages then for 10 packages (4x2+2) QA must be done. Even, GNU/Linux, I think Ubuntu Fedora and SuSE are important distribution - 2 packages but 3 platforms then 6 QA tests. We should also tested on Windows XP, 2000 and Vista etc, I believe, soon the number of testing platforms growing infinity. I coordinated the QA process for OOo 2.0.4 JA version [1] with intensive use of vmwareplayer on Windows XP MCE 2005 [2,3].
In my experience, vmwareplayer reduced the cost very efficiently by running two virtual machines, and QA tests at the same time [3]; I noticed that automated QA testtool only consume 6% of CPU time [4]. This means during automated QA tests, CPU is almost doing nothing, just waiting for response from OOo. This also means regardless of the machine environment (GNU/Linux, Solaris, Windows, MacOSX and how fast the CPU, memory is), one run of qa testtool takes about 15 hours [4]. I prefer using QEMU [5] and actually I used it for creating virtual machines for vmwareplayer. because this is a free software (unfortunately kqemu is not though), however QEMU is bit slower. Vmware server is also good one and we can install vmware tools, but also it is bit slower. In my opinion, using freely available software is mandatory. A motivated QA testers will buy VMware desktop, of course, but a trial QA by novice QA tester might want to know how the QA test. Summary of this intro. * Doing QA using automated QA testtool to reduce the cost. * Using freely available softwares (not free software, unfortunately). * Using vmware player. * Virtualize a PC so that we can test without preparing a PC dedicated to QA. * Two virtual machines doing QA at the same time to reduce the time. But do not run two identical copies of Windows 2k virtual machines (or Windows XP machines) at the same time. One Win 2k machine recognizes the other as the same computer in the same network. * Typically, one automated qatest takes about 15 hours. 2. What Vmware player can/cannot do? Vmware player is a virtual machine player. It means you can create a virtual machine in your machine. So that we can test without breaking your environment. You can test some applications with clean environment so that identify an error more systematically. And Vmware player is freely available software which is not a free software. but there are problems. (a) cannot create new virtual machines. (b) cannot install vmware tools (otherwise virtual machine becomes very slow, drag and drop file copy is not available etc) (c) cannot mount/unmount CD iso images We can workaround such disadvantages. 3. How to obtain vmware player To obtain vmware player you may want to go download site http://www.vmware.com/download/player/download.html [6]. I used 1.0.3. You must also download vmware server (to extract vmare tools) [7] http://www.vmware.com/download/server/ and registrate. First you must install vmware server In C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server you will find freebsd.iso, linux.iso, netware.iso, solaris.iso and windows.iso . Please keep them somewhere else so that vmwareplayer can use them. 4. Creating a new virtual machines. There are two steps: (1) Creating virtual hard disk drive (2) creating vmx files. To create a virtual hard disk drive, I used QEMU. I'm using Windows, I downloaded Windows version of QEMU http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~qemu-win/index.html [8]. . To create vmx files, I used http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/winnt/util/se386393.html as a template [9]. Using two utilities, we can create a new virtual machines at breeze. Note that vmx files are small text files and sometimes I modified vmx file to meet our needs. We will paste them if necessary. vmxMaker is not mandatory if you have some skeleton file of vmx and knowledge to modify it. 5. Vmware tools and its leagal issues. Vmware tools are crucial tools for vmwareplayer. Otherwise, screen update is slow, mouse cannot move soothly, and file transfer via drag and drop between virtual-host machines is not available. Problem here is that vmware tools are not come with vmwareplayer, and we must extract from some other vmware packages. Is it okay from the point of view of EULA? The answer is yes. I'm not a lawyer though. Here are EULA of vmware server [10]: 3.5 VMware Tools. You may distribute the VMware Tools internally within your entity provided that (i) you do not modify the VMware Tools; (ii) you distribute the VMware Tools in object code format only and solely in conjunction with, and as part of, the Virtual Machine you create with the Software and are sharing internally; (iii) you do not distribute the VMware Tools to any third party; (v) you do not use VMware's name, logo or trademarks to market the Virtual Machine you create with the Software and (vi) you agree to indemnify, hold harmless, and defend VMware from and against any claims or lawsuits, including attorneys' fees, that arise or result from the use or distribution of the Virtual Machine you create. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you may refer to VMware names, logos or trademarks to indicate that the Virtual Machine you create with the Software are compatible with or designed for use with the Software. . So - it is quite apparent that we can use vmware tools from vmware server. A person can create vmware machine image with vmwareserver and sharing internally for him/herself. Please see also: ``VMWare Tools + VMWare Player = Legal? '' [11, 12] Semi-official clarification can be found, and it is legal. 6. mount/unmount CD iso images In vmware player, we cannot mount/unmount CD iso images, other than physical devices. We use daemon tools to create virtual CD/DVD drives and mount ISO images as if they physically exist [13] http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/announcements.php 7. Documents for vmware player, esp installing OS in a virtual machine. Please refer http://www.vmware.com/pdf/GuestOS_guide or http://www.vmware.com/jp/pdf/GuestOS_guide_jp.pdf [14]. We can find also other documents [15]. 8. Licensing issue. You must have valid lisence for your guest OS. Esp. for Windows. References [1] http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=70335 [2] http://www.vmware.com/products/player/ [3] http://ja.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=discuss&msgNo=13794 [4] http://ja.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=discuss&msgNo=13823 [5] http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/ [6] http://www.vmware.com/download/player/download.html [7] http://www.vmware.com/download/server/ [8] http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~qemu-win/index.html [9] http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/winnt/util/se386393.html [10] http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/server.html [11] http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=25731 [12] http://www.vmware.com/community/message.jspa?messageID=300296#30029 [13] http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/announcements.php [14] http://www.vmware.com/pdf/GuestOS_guide , http://www.vmware.com/jp/pdf/GuestOS_guide_jp.pdf [15] http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/player_pubs.html , http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/server_pubs.html -- NAKATA, Maho ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
