Testing with Virtual Machines: Past, Present, and Future

In the past several years, virtualization has dramatically improved tester productivity. A virtual machine is a useful abstraction for encapsulating the entire software stack. Roussi Roussev presents proven techniques that no modern test environment is complete without. Running multiple virtual machines on a single host maximizes hardware resource utilization and reduces operating costs. Strong isolation facilitates building security testing and multi-tenant environments. With the help of snapshots, virtual machines can quickly travel in time and space. Virtual hardware makes simulating machine, cluster or entire datacenter failure scenarios a whole lot easier. Deterministic record/replay helps track hard to reproduce bugs, comparing outputs allows for measuring the impact of small configuration and binary changes. Discover how managers should rethink testing in a virtualized environments and address the challenges that come with them. Further, Roussi discusses recent developments that have the potential to change the way we test software.