I am taking a break, a much needed one, from working on VMworld related things, which I will mention a little of at the end, and wanted to do something that I should have done long ago. I used to do a lot of SRM proof of concepts with people around the US and Canada – and now only do a few, but I do sure like helping people with SRM – and one of the popular parts to my PofC work was how to produce a test plan. I am not referring here to an SRM Recovery Plan, but actually the bigger item that includes both application and SRM information.
This test plan identifies the goal, the players, the setup, requirements, and even the actual test that must be done after the SRM test failover (and prior to cleanup), for the test to be considered a success.
This document organizes everyone to work to the goal of a successful application test.
I have a sample test plan for mail servers that I would like to share. it is not perfect or finished, but it should give you a very good start. Download Sample Email Test Plan_a
BTW, I would like to make a few suggestions about VMworld presentations that I think you will find interesting. Full disclosure – I am doing some of these, and have helped on some too, and some I just hope to see myself.
BC8432 – SRM Futures – Host based replication
BC6701 – VMware Data Recovery – all you need to know
BC8537 – VMware Data Protection Roadmap (this should be very interesting for everyone, and include info on the future of VMware Data Recovery too!)
BC6703 – How to be successful with SRM
BC8372 – SRM Futures – Failback and more
TA6944 – PowerCLI is for Administrators
TA8133 – Best Practices to Increase Availability and Throughput for VMware
SE7811 – View Security Architecture and Best Practices
Also, I will be working in a POD near a very large red truck. I will have SRM future storyboards, and a very nice SRM lab. The truck is actually pretty cool if you haven't seen it yet. Come visit!
