How Time Machine® Enables Agile Projects with Continuous Integration and Test Automation

SANTA CLARA, CA. - Wednesday, July 15, 2020

WHY AGILE

Agile, one of the most popular testing methodologies in the industry has recently been adopted by heavyweights like Amazon and Spotify. With Agile, one of the key concepts is to have small Scrum/Squad teams do software development in short weekly sprints where members check-in code on a daily basis to integrate and detect issues early. As a result, multiple testing runs could be concurrent on different versions of the software at the same time. Here, test automation is key to make it efficient, productive and manageable

AUTOMATION FOR CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION

This process is called Continuous Integration (CI), where a release will be built automatically whenever new codes are checked in to the source code control system. Even better yet, the new release will automatically be loaded on to test systems to initiate test automation.

CHALLENGE FOR FULL AUTOMATION

One killer to stop such test automation is to time shift to test date & time sensitive business logic, such as month-end, quarter-end, year-end processing, new regulation change date, debt collection cycle, etc. If this is done by administrators to shut down and restart the application and database - in addition to changing the system clocks - it can become a time consuming and manual process that cannot be automated. Worse yet, a test run may need to visit multiple date triggers, such as a debt collection cycle. So much manual interruption and waiting can occur in a run to the point where the manual wait time is longer than the actual testing time!

TIME MACHINE AS AN ENABLER

The key for test automation of time shift testing is having the Time Machine software virtual clocks with the Sync Server URL api to broadcast the same virtual clock to the test environment. Sync Server URL api enables any test scripts or test programs to time travel the test environment (different systems for application server, database server; etc) with one URL call to the Sync Server to broadcast a virtual clock to the predefined sync group that covers the target systems. No changing system clocks or application & database shutdown & restart is required per time shift. The test script can time travel to multiple virtual clocks to cover the entire test cycle within the run without any manual steps.

ADDITIONAL TEST AUTOMATION CHALLENGES IN THE CLOUD

Performing CI and Agile in the Cloud also brings additional challenges. With the Cloud, it is common to spin down the systems when not in use and spin them up just for the test cycle to save costs (pay as you go). Depending on the frequency of source code check-in, multiple sets of the test environments can be dynamically created and terminated on-the-fly. In such usage case, the system ipaddr and mac addr can change each time and is not known before the system is up. Because of that nature, some software may require a new license key. Agile/DevOp team should be alarming, in that event, a manual process is required and that will kill the automation. Time Machine addresses this challenge with our Floating License Server. The Floating License Server can check out a license when Time Machine service starts and automatically release the license once it stops. This automates the license and asset management, so no license keys are ever needed. This also allows the pool of licenses to float to any system across OS platforms from Linux and AIX, to Windows. If a system comes up for 20 minutes, then it will use the license for 20 minutes and release the license back to the pool for other systems to utilize automatically.

In addition to floating licenses, Sync Server also provides URL API to enable test script to update sync group definition on-the-fly with the newly created systems. This means the test automation script can be done without knowing the system identity beforehand in this dynamic scenario.

As a result, we demonstrate the Agile CI cycle could be 100% automated in the Cloud.  A source code submittal trigger new release to be built, a brand-new test environment is provisioned, with the new release loaded, a regression test suite is run with multiple time travel trigger points to test various test cases, send out the test report, decommission the test environment.  Interesting readers could request a demo of CI automation in the Cloud.

IN CONCLUSION

Time Machine, Sync Server, and Floating License Server have been proven as the most effective and streamlined test automation software to date. The key to the success of any Agile project is test automation and Time Machine is the key to enabling 100% test automation to complete the CI cycle both on-premise or in the Cloud.

About Time Machine:

Software Virtual Clocks for Time Travel Testing. Simulate past and future dates effortlessly with Time Machine®, enabling comprehensive testing of your date- and time-sensitive applications. Ideal for validating critical business processes like quarter-end and year-end processing, billing cycles, regulatory compliance (including Year 2038), and policy lifecycles during integration, upgrades, virtualization, cloud migration, and containerization. Eliminate the risks and downtime associated with system clock resets in complex environments like Active Directory and Kerberos.

About Solution-Soft:

The Leader in Virtual Clock and Time Travel Testing Solutions

Since 1997, Solution-Soft has been at the forefront of virtual clock software and time travel testing solutions, empowering organizations in the ever-evolving digital world. Our flagship product, Time Machine, has revolutionized application testing, enabling thousands of companies, including 47 of the Fortune 100 US companies, to reduce costs and accelerate project delivery by an average of 3 – 10 times across traditional systems and containerized applications.

The Time Machine Product Suite extends these capabilities, optimizing cloud migration, test automation, Agile/DevOps, and containerization testing. Our latest innovation, Time Machine for Containers, supports standalone Docker containers and large-scale Kubernetes and OpenShift clusters (including a 16,000+ CPU core, 1,300+ namespace deployments).

Trusted by over 2,000 customers worldwide across diverse industries (including 3M, AMEX, BBC, Boeing, and more) and partnered with industry leaders like Accenture, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Red Hat, Solution-Soft, founded in 1993 and headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, provides cutting-edge solutions for your time-sensitive testing needs. Learn more at www.solution-soft.com or call +1.408.346.1400.

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