Microsoft Word Hardware Reconfiguration Methodology V final2

System administration testing

It is obvious that the system administrator will know the various systems, infrastructures, telecommunication equipment, and operating systems very well. It is his job to understand them and to be comfortable with them. That is why, although obvious to state, that the system administrator plays a key role in testing the system after changes have been made to it. The system administrator above all others knows what to expect and how the system in general should behave, including its performance, reliability, security configurations, and network-based access and resources. Of course, user testing is also very important. Before user-based testing is done system administration testing should take precedence. Only after the system administrator finds the system to be functional should other tests be conducted on it. Different system administrators, according to the skills and years of experience way use determine a system’s suitability for work using different tools and techniques. While most vendor distributions provide similar UNIX- based tools they can sometimes behave differently. Thorough documentation of system administrator-based testing is as important to note as any other test. In addition, results from the various tools including system metric information should also be included in any documentation.

7. Behaviour and functionality

Before accepting a set of modifications there are several issues that are very important to consider. The most important of these is to notice if behavioural are a result of the modifications made to it. Behavioural changes could be indicated by a change in screens or system messages when the system boots up or powers down. There could also be various messages written to the console that could be the result of one or more buggy device drivers. Applications and/or services that were once fast and responsive are now slower or unresponsive (i.e. benchmarking). Noticing behavioural changes often is not an easy task, but someone such as the system administrator should be familiar enough with the current hardware and operating systems to

recognize many types of differences. Many things can be changed after an update or upgrade and this is why, when possible, changes should be made incrementally, tested, and observed.

The system administrator must determine if the functionality of the operating system is essentially the same as it was before the change(s) were made. It is only normal that updates and upgrades will change the kernel and other key operating system components, but these changes should not adversely affect the system. However, the system administrator is uniquely qualified to determine if aberrant behaviour or functionality is a results of changes made to the system.

However, the system administrator is not likely to recognize changes made to the various applications used on the system(s) by the various users. Different users will use different applications and services to start and complete their assigned work and tasks. Test users are uniquely capable of determining whether applications and services are behaving and functioning correctly. Test users should consist of advanced users who are fully capable of performing their tasks with the least amount of system administrative support so that they can independently verify if adverse changes are present.

Benchmarking can be used to help alert the system administrator to various problems by attempting to determine how performance after a set of system modifications differs from the baseline benchmark(s). It is also important to determine if there are any noticeable or adverse changes or to the system after the implementation of specific software or configuration file changes and/or modifications. Of course, aberrant system, application, or service behaviour is not always caused by direct binary modification; sometimes it is caused by changes to configuration files. Other times it is caused by a change to one or more library interdependencies or system call changes.

8.