Setting Up a Preliminary Lab

If you do not already have a lab, it is important to start working on one as early as possible in your Windows 2000 deployment project. You need the lab early in the planning phase for learning about the product, proving concepts, testing various scenarios against your business model, and validating solutions. Very early in the project you can select the location, start assessing hardware requirements, reconfigure existing lab equipment, and perhaps start purchasing or recycling hardware for the lab.

Your early planning pays off at test time when you have provided adequate space for the necessary equipment and the proper configurations for accurate tests. As you make decisions regarding the hardware, software, and personnel requirements for testing, document them in your test plan. For more information about the test plan, see "Testing" later in this chapter.

If you plan to build a permanent lab, you might need to obtain management approval and funding that is independent of your Windows 2000 deployment project. If so, start the approval process as early as possible.

Early in the planning process your lab can help you establish your basic namespace design and high-level deployment plan, which you can then use as a baseline for further testing and development. When you use the lab as a baseline configuration and then add functionality in stages, you can avoid the problems associated with designs that are developed independently of each other.

To get started on exploratory testing, you can build an interim lab with two or three servers and client computers, use an existing lab, or set up a server/client computer configuration in an office. Then, as you decide on the high-level design, start putting the pieces together for your formal lab.

Although the lab evolves throughout the project to reflect changes in testing focus, make sure it is fully equipped and stable prior to prepilot integration testing.

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