We are on Visual 9.0.8 Service Pack 1 and need to upgrade to Service Pack 4. I need to create a test enviornment to test. I need to know how to create this environment. Hoping there's a KB article out there but have not been successful in finding one.
create another database but give it a different name.
I have a test database. But I need test software to update before I install in live software.
It really depends on how exotic you want to get.
At the most simplistic, simply create a copy of your database as a test database, which it sounds like you have. You can restore your live database to the test database for best testing. Then, set up a system that will be your test application system. Perform a full install to that system. Then, you can begin whatever tests that you need against the test database.
We have a test environment set up which emulates our live environment - SQL Server, Application server, client -- in a separate vlan and virtual environment. We use VTA besides Visual, so this provides us the best testing capabilities.
Hi eagle,
We had a similar need when we wanted to look at Visual Shopfloor as we had to be running SP4 to do that, but were unwilling to take the leap on production without testing.
In SQL we created a new test Db and restored the 9.0.8 SP1 production Db into that
Span up a VM and installed a new instance of Visual (Application Server) on the new VM
From the VM ran VMCVUTIL to patch the test database up to SP4.
From here it was just a case of setting up a client only install on a test client, point it to the new Application Server and test.
Not very elegant or scalable but did the job for us.
Hello Eagle1585. We are forwarding this to Rich Lagoy to answer. Stay tuned.
There is no one answer to this question. The key is understanding the components of the VISUAL environment (software components, runtime, SQL.INI, database connections, etc), and then understanding your overall environment to effectively isolate the two version levels. Without question, a test environment should always be available to test upgrades, patches, new modules, and so on, before rolling into production. My recommendation is to consult with your channel partner about setting this up and how to maintain moving forward. It will be well worth the investment.
