[Opensim-dev] Performance issue :S

[Mo Hax]

Well, in the normal software development cycle in most big shops there are
different levels of test. They get called different things by different
shops but they boil down to the following levels (forgive the obvious):

   1. Testing by the developer of a specific function during development
   (ex: unit testing)
   2. Testing by the development and/or test team of the new function as it
   integrates with the overall project (ex: integration, alpha)
   3. Testing by users themselves or a test team focused on user acceptance
   criteria (ex: beta, user-acceptance)
   4. Post release testing in the 'production environment' (ex: production)

It seems your suggested use of OSGrid fits into either level 3 or level 4.
My only point really was that perhaps we want to catch some potentially
grid-affecting bugs that only show up in a grid environment before they hit
what I am assuming is a 'production environment' in the OSGrid. SL
accomplishes this in part with one or more Beta grid releases where people
bang on stuff before it goes into SL production. Even then, as we well know,
they miss stuff.

So I guess my suggestion is to either

   - Call out OSGrid clearly as a 'beta' grid for opensim so people do not
   expect anything close to production stability

or

   - Actually create a 'beta' OSGrid that is marked as such in any
   presentation materials leaving OSGrid hopefully at a more production level
   of stability

I know this whole conversation might be premature because OpenSim itself is
still clearly alpha software. But thinking about the test and release
process is a good topic to start now. I share the frustrations of many
opensim users when one function is added only to have another break.
Concepts like 'regression testing' are still largely absent from what I see
of the project mostly due to lack of resources and motivation, the very
reason the smart folk at Linden may well have overlooked testing for so
long.

In my spare time (OpenSim is still not a 'day' job for me) I am focused more
on creating and organizing stock content submissions at the moment, but I
would love to continue help with testing as well. The testers really should
not be the developers, so in that sense OSGrid seems like a good start.

Mo

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 11:52 AM, Charles Krinke <cfk at pacbell.net> wrote:

> Dear Mo:
>
> Could you amplify and describe what you mean by a "staging testing
> environment like the SL Beta grid has served" so that we (or perhaps just I
> if everyone else knows) can understand what you mean.
> Charles
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Mo Hax <imohax at gmail.com>
> To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 8:20:04 AM
> Subject: Re: [Opensim-dev] Performance issue :S
>
> I would agree that using a grid that is used provides the most motivated
> testing environment.
>
> On the other hand, I haven't read anything about the need of a staging test
> environment, like the SL Beta grid has served.
>
> On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 10:39 AM, Charles Krinke <cfk at pacbell.net> wrote:
>
>> One of the main goals of OSGrid is to provide a consistent testing
>> environment with a variety of known and controlled configurations.
>>
>> In general, the plazas are the most known and controlled and a number of
>> developers have access to the plaza consoles whenever they wish.
>>
>> There are regions that I and others have setup that represent various use
>> cases. Things such as:
>>
>> Yang - One region, one server, reasonable RAM, Linux, DSL from a home
>> 'Moons' - Four regions running on one OpenSim.exe instance in Linux, DSL
>> from a home
>> Celt - Small VPS (256MByte RAM) in colo in the UK
>>
>> These just represent a small sample. They all get reasonable traffic and
>> the plazas, both LinuxPlazas (Wright, Lbsa) and the WindowsPlazas (Zaius,
>> Bade, SeaPrior, Teravus) have very significant traffic, if not the most
>> traffic of any existing OpenSim regions on any grids.
>>
>> In general, we are encouraging folks to test and report with the latest
>> secondlife.com official client, but there are folks testing with a
>> variety of clients.
>>
>> So, we already have a system testing environment in place.
>>
>> I would urge us to define via wiki or mantis a few recipes for regression
>> tests and take advantage of the hundreds of folks logging into these and
>> other regions each day.
>>
>> Or, one could consider some bot testing using the regions setup for
>> testing Opensim. That certainly is another reasonable action.
>>
>> Charles
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
>> https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-dev
>>
>>
>
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