2. Testing

Upgrading from one version of software to another introduces change. To ensure a trouble-free transition and to minimize risk, testing is essential. The amount of testing necessary depends on the scale of your installation and the number of applications.

When upgrading, the software is updated and any existing OpenROAD application images are re-imaged under the new version. Your test plan should include testing the following:

• The software upgrade process

• The applications that will use the upgraded software

• The rollout process

Conduct testing until all aspects of the upgrade work from start to finish without error.

Most applications will have an associated system test plan. It is a good idea to run this plan for all applications to ensure that the new version of the software and application has introduced no new issues. If no system test plan is available, then you should create one that will at least verify that the basic functionality of an application has not been affected adversely.

Consider the amount of user acceptance testing required, if any. In principle this should not be necessary; however, it depends on how much business knowledge is held by the team doing the system test. If the test team’s knowledge is considered inadequate to verify the basic application functionality, a stage of user acceptance testing will be required.

To ensure your previous OpenROAD applications can be tested in the new installation, do the following:

• Before starting the upgrade, take an application and database inventory. You must have the complete and current source code for all applications. If the source code does not match what users are running, problems can result.

• Ensure that each application still builds successfully from the source code because you will eventually recompile your applications under the new version.

• If an application cannot be rebuilt, test the original executable with OpenROAD as soon as possible. If the application has no upward compatibility issues, it may be possible to run the old application against an OpenROAD installation and Ingres database. Otherwise, you will have to recreate the application or do without it.

• Try to synchronize the test and live Ingres upgrades with an appropriate point in the application's life cycle. If application development is underway, plan how to coordinate new development with OpenROAD compatibility. Upgrades from newer versions may be able to move quickly enough to avoid the issue. Preparing an upgrade from OpenROAD 3.5 or 4.1 can take longer and may halt development work.

You must test your applications with the new version of OpenROAD before performing a production upgrade. The cost of testing every function in every application can be prohibitive, but fortunately, such testing is rarely necessary. A proper test plan can reduce testing time to a week or two even for a large application.