Creating a Test Environment

A test environment encompasses all the locations that support testing without risk to your corporate network. Many large organizations distribute their test environments across numerous physical, or even geographical, locations for testing in various technical, business, or political contexts. The following factors influence the decisions you make about your test environment:

• Your testing methodology
• Features and components you will test
• Personnel who will perform the testing

A test environment might include one or more labs, and a lab might include one or more locations. The term lab is used in this chapter to refer to a network that is designed for testing and is isolated from the corporate network.

For your Windows 2000 project, you might decide to have several independent labs for different testing purposes. For example, you could have one lab for network infrastructure and server testing and another lab for client computer and application testing. Conversely, a single lab might consist of multiple locations. For example, you could have a network infrastructure lab with multiple locations connected by a wide area network (WAN) for testing the effects of various link speeds.

If you are deploying Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server and Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Professional at the same time, many factors influence your decision about whether the two projects should have separate labs or a shared one. Some of these factors are:

• Complexity of your deployment (such as variability in your production environment and the new features you plan to implement).
• Size, location, and structure of your project teams.
• Size of your budget.
• Availability of physical space.
• Location of testers.
• Use of the labs after deployment.

The considerations in this chapter apply to labs you design for testing either Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2000 Professional.

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