By Nancy Cox Building a Corporate Testing Lab

Constructing the Lab

Let's assume you've gotten the funding you need so you won't have to beg, borrow and midnight requisition what you'll need to construct the lab. Very few companies can afford to provide all new equipment and premium space for a test lab, but these days, downsizing, program terminations and the like, can be a source of adequate space and equipment.

You'll want at least a 10' by 15' room with a 10' high ceiling. This will give you enough space to open the lab and add equipment for about two years without living in cramped quarters or having to move. The high ceiling is necessary for overhead cable racks that will keep the floor area clean. You could use raised flooring but this is expensive and can make cabling changes cumbersome. You'll need space for equipment racks, a UPS, work areas and storage. We recommend that you ei ther use slender 7' tall equipment cabinets to hold rack-mounted machines or three-tiered open metalwork racks that can hold six tower machines on the bottom row, monitors on the center row and documentation or more machines on the top row. Another space-saving idea is to install master switches that use one monitor, mouse and keyboard to control several machines.

Network drops, modem lines and power plugs should be provided for more machines than you're certain you'll ever need in the lab. Growth is sure, and it is far easier and less costly to build growth in during the construction phase. Connections in close proximity to the machines enable the simple set up and take down of large tests. The room should have a good fire alarm and control system, such as halon gas.

Because the lab personnel will be working for long stretches of time testing products, you'll want an environment that is soothing and helpful in reducing glare and strain. Use nonglare neon overhead lights in parabolic fixtures. Paint the lab walls a soft pastel color-- light sky blue or daffodil. Consider the ergonomics of the height and angle of the monitors and location of the keyboard and mouse to prevent such physical ailments as carpal tunnel syndrome. Select flooring and racks that are static resistant.

Adequate storage space is crucial. During large hardware evaluations, vendors will ship their products in big boxes and these will need to be stored while the test is in progress and then used to ship the products back again at the conclusion of the test. Plus, you'll need space sufficient to hold all the product documentation and software packages that are loaded on the test machines. Storage space in the form of floor to ceiling shelves and file cabinets is a must.

You'll want at least some level of security for the lab. There are two ways to provide this security--physically and logically. Physical security involves controlling access to the lab room. Typical methods are installing locks, finger locks, access ba dge readers and so on. Logical security protects access to the computer equipment and software programs by means of administrator passwords or strong authentication such as public/private key access control, digital signatures and secure cards.

Selecting Lab Hardware and Software

The corporate test lab should mirror the standard computing environment in use within the enterprise. The lab will perform client and server testing as well as performance, scalability and functionality testing. If the company has standardized on Windows-based machines, then the lab should reflect this by having workstations running 3.11, Win95 and WinNT and servers running Win95 and WinNT (both 3.51 and 4.0, if this is representative). Unix servers and Macintoshes are needed if these platforms are deployed within the enterprise.

The lab will require enough client machines to test the features and functions of distributed client applications, such as workflow. You'll need at least one each of the most predominant workstations and file servers in the company in order to test forward and backward compatibility for hardware and software upgrades, fixes and patches, for example. You'll also need to have a couple of very high powered server-class machines for performance and scalability testing. If the executives, mobile workers or warehousing people have laptops, PDAs or other hand-held devices, you'll need to have these units in the lab as well.

Stable servers and clients always running those applications and services that the organization always uses are quite convenient. Also, being able to test add-on packages quickly on a standard desktop saves time. Determine how many flexible, variable machines you will need then add in the stable ones for the standard configurations.

Other equipment beneficial to have in the lab would be removable hard drives, a scanner, fax machine, network printer, a UPS and telephones. Removable hard drives give users an opportunity to take their work home with them after configuring a client or server application and are also convenient for multiboot requirements.

Since some of the tests conducted in the lab will require stable servers running for extended periods of time, a UPS is essential. Select a UPS that allows for growth in power requirements and in the number of devices.

Remote telephones with headsets are very useful for talking to technical support, as are speakerphones. Both permit the lab personnel to talk while still working. You will want at least two phones in the lab with very long handset cords if they are not remote phones. You may want to place an extension outside the lab door, if the lab is in a very secure location. You'll need two phone lines, one for technical support to call you back on the other for general use.

Equipment should be tagged or bar-coded to the lab for inventory control purposes and to reduce the possibility of it "wandering away." Lab personnel need to keep equipment serial numbers, specifications and configurations for each device on hand for service calls and upgrades.

Software selected to run in the test lab must reflect the company's standard operating systems, network protocol stacks, Web applications, virus control as well as products for office applications, such as e-mail, calendaring, spreadsheet, database, workflow and voice mail. You'll want standard software configurations for groups such as secretaries, executives, power users and developers running on stable machines. You'll also want any development tool kits and application development programs that are used within the organization. Any custom software that uses the standard software applications must be represented in the lab as well.

You'll need current releases of the all the standard software products for both clients and servers as well as the back releases to test interoperability. Getting in beta software for evaluation and feedback is beneficial to both the organization and the vendor.

Because you'll ha ve servers and clients fully populated with standard configuration software you'll definitely want to have backup and restore software and hardware for the entire lab. Several software packages are on the market that can automate this process for scheduled nightly backups. Get the fastest backup device, preferably DLTs (digital linear technology), you can afford. Be sure to obtain hardware and software with growth in gigabytes of data built in.

Providing Communications Connectivity

Critical to the success of the test lab is its connectivity with the entire enterprise. Again, the lab needs to be a microcosm of the organization at large in terms of LAN, WAN and Internet connectivity. Network operating systems, network protocols, hubs, routers and switches should model those deployed within the enterprise. If the corporation has mainframes and minicomputers, the lab needs to have connectivity to them as well.

You'll want the fastest connection you can get to the Internet so that you can conduct research on new products, services and technology. You also need to have modems and wireless connections to mimic remote-access configurations for mobile workers. Connectivity with the PBX system for computer-telephony integration testing would be beneficial if the this is part of the lab's chartered service.

Having a test network segment for the lab is beneficial in that heavy testing can be accomplished without injecting heavy traffic over the production network. If you have the segment routed to the production network and ready for use, you can easily use this connection when needed. You can go so far as to have the segment firewalled so that the test network and the production network do not interfere with each other.