Looking for some feedback on how other people are managing VM's with the same problem I am having.
We have an offsite developer creating builds of a product we give to our customers. We need better testing so we are starting to use our vCenter with one Datacenter definition (not using clusters) and with one template for each architecture (x86 / 64) and OS version needs to be tested. So the product needs the following OS.....
Win 7 32 bit
Win 7 64 bit
Win 8.1 32 bit
Win 8.1 64 bit
Server 2008
Server 2008 R2
Server 2012 R2
So the process I have so far is archive each of the past versions to keep for archiving, then create 7 VM's from the above templates. I then install software on each one and run through some test scripts. Next I need some sort of way to test an upgrade path either using all 7 or maybe just 2 of the VM's. This ends up creating too much overhead and time to get testing done, since I am not a QA guy but a developer who happens to manage our VM Server. My main question is how do some of you guys accomplish this for maybe your testing dept or developers with testing. Do you use Template like how I am or do you use snapshots or clone from a template....I am looking for the best way I can tackle this and save some time. If there is another VMWare product (not vRealize, too expensive) that I can do some more automation that would be ok too.....
Thanks I am a developer first and learning the VM side has been quite a learning experience! please help Thanks in advance.