Topic: What is Middleware Testing?

The following sections provide details about the testing that was carried out for middleware services in the test labs. The test methodology and the tools that were used are discusses, along with details of their setup and how they were used for data analysis after testing. Information about the different types of tests is also provided; details of the test cases and their results are provided in the "Appendixes" section at the end of this guide.
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Test Lab Methodology    Test Lab Methodology
Test Lab Functional Tests    Test Lab Functional Tests
Test Lab Load Tests    Test Lab Load Tests

Test Lab Methodology:

The nature of information technology in the organization continues to evolve, with increasing emphasis on the delivery of cost-effective integration with suppliers, partners, and customers both inside and outside the corporate local area network (LAN). Middleware servers that provide Web services, .NET remoting, and DCOM need to be available, secure, and efficient when external applications connect from external data sources and data centers; the CDC scenario also includes client applications connecting from within the CDC environment itself.

Test cases need to ensure that the middleware servers are consistent with the WSSRA middleware services design, which uses redundancy to provide availability and to eliminate single points of failure; only in the event of a catastrophic hardware failure should services be affected. Load tests were run, and the data gathered during these load tests helped make better informed decisions pertaining to capacity planning.
Test Tools

The test tools that were used for Web application and middleware services are the same. For more information on these test tools, refer to the corresponding section in the Web Application Services Build Guide.


Test Lab Functional Tests:

Functional tests in were performed to determine the various functional aspects of the system corresponding to the Web servers. They were carried out to verify the build; that is, to ensure that the middleware servers were functional and available when integrated with other services and that they were able to handle peak loads on the Web sites.

A few basic audit tests were executed as part of prerequisites for deploying the service; these tests have not been documented as separate test cases.

The test cases executed for middleware services were similar to the ones used for Web application services but for a few exceptions like the test case of .NET remoting test case detailed in test case ID 751 and 752.
Auditing and Build Verification Testing

Audit and build verification tests (BVTs) were performed to confirm that the middleware services were built according to Windows Server System Reference Architecture (WSSRA) specifications. These test cases quickly validated that the build process was successfully completed and that the middleware servers were equipped to run the services according to specifications. The build guidance in this guide and the ConfigurationMatrix.xls file in the Deployment Kit were used to generate these test cases.

Testing included the following steps:

1.Hardware validation of the middleware servers in the internal and perimeter domains against the specifications in the "Server Conf by Name" worksheet of the ConfigurationMatrix.xls file.

2.Checking for the network adapter configurations of Web servers in the internal and perimeter domains against the specifications in the "Computer NIC Config" worksheet of the ConfigurationMatrix.xls file.

3.Installation of the necessary software to run the services as specified in the prescriptive planning guides.

4.Validation of the configuration of all middleware servers; for example, verifying the configuration of the Web site created during the build process for CRL hosting.


Edited by moderator - 04May2007 at 10:34pm