Tools for Automated Testing and Pushing to Production

Pho3nix

Pho3nix

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Hi all,

Need some assistance with people that are actively using some integration + testing tools.
I'm looking for an application that can do automated testing for ( SQL + Visual Studio + SSIS ) and a tool that can push all changed commited that have passed testing into Production at a click of a button.

Some assistance would be appreciated.
Doing some research as well but looking for applications that people have actually used and are happy with.

Please and thank you :)
 
It depends a little on what VCS and deployment process you're using.

If possible, I'd suggest using some hosted continuous integration service. Unfortunately, most of them only support Linux-based builds.
http://www.appveyor.com/ is one of few that supports Windows, but I can't vouch for it myself.

The general idea of hosted services like these (vs something like Jenkins) is that you have all your configuration in the same repository as your code, and every build is run on a clean VM. This has the advantage there is no (or very little) implicit configuration on your build server that your project depends on. It does have some limitations though, for example that your project has to be hosted on GitHub or Bitbucket (not a bad idea either).

If a hosted service like that won't work for you, Jenkins is popular option - just more trouble to manage the server. TeamCity is also a good alternative. There may be more good Windows-specific alternatives, but I haven't used any yet.
 
Look at the Atlassian stuff too. Confluence, bamboo etc. awesome stuff. Dunno if it will work with your dev environment though.
 
ozziej said:
Look at the Atlassian stuff too. Confluence, bamboo etc. awesome stuff. Dunno if it will work with your dev environment though.
Click to expand...

We have all this licensed but no idea where to start.
From what I understand we need a separate server with Bamboo installed which is connected to Jira which has the story points attached. Business wants to go this route but have 0 experience and the relationship manager is ... Special.

Could you post a small example of how you guys are doing it?
 
Frikkenator said:
The continuous integration with VS + Visual Studio Online + Azure is friggin amazing, but I'm guessing it's not going to work for your setup.
Click to expand...

Might work.. If licenses are needed, can work around that but need something viable that won't take 6 months to configure.
 
falcrum said:
It depends a little on what VCS and deployment process you're using.

If possible, I'd suggest using some hosted continuous integration service. Unfortunately, most of them only support Linux-based builds.
http://www.appveyor.com/ is one of few that supports Windows, but I can't vouch for it myself.

The general idea of hosted services like these (vs something like Jenkins) is that you have all your configuration in the same repository as your code, and every build is run on a clean VM. This has the advantage there is no (or very little) implicit configuration on your build server that your project depends on. It does have some limitations though, for example that your project has to be hosted on GitHub or Bitbucket (not a bad idea either).

If a hosted service like that won't work for you, Jenkins is popular option - just more trouble to manage the server. TeamCity is also a good alternative. There may be more good Windows-specific alternatives, but I haven't used any yet.
Click to expand...

Thanks will research all that you've mentioned.
Funny how Google doesn't give me any of these products :)
 
We ended up writing our own system. All web based. Have application builds, Test data builds. Can schedule deployment of the app and configured test data builds to any environment. Then schedule automated regression tests to run before 8am. Signed off builds are then scheduled to deployed to production.

We have a multi-platform environment. Our web solution is a dot net environment with an Oracle back end on Unix. Our in-house system is Unix based oracle application server and an Oracle back end also on Unix.

Works for us.

I have worked at 3 quite large companies. 2 in the UK and 1 in SA. All ended up with their own custom built solutions.
 
zippy said:
We ended up writing our own system. All web based. Have application builds, Test data builds. Can schedule deployment of the app and configured test data builds to any environment. Then schedule automated regression tests to run before 8am. Signed off builds are then scheduled to deployed to production.

We have a multi-platform environment. Our web solution is a dot net environment with an Oracle back end on Unix. Our in-house system is Unix based oracle application server and an Oracle back end also on Unix.

Works for us.

I have worked at 3 quite large companies. 2 in the UK and 1 in SA. All ended up with their own custom built solutions.
Click to expand...

Thing is business won't pay for a custom solution as yet :( So have to try make due with whats available at hand now.
 
Jenkins. If it is good enough for Netflix, it is good enough for you
 
Pho3nix said:
Thing is business won't pay for a custom solution as yet :( So have to try make due with whats available at hand now.
Click to expand...

People always want some instant miracle solution. Life seldom works that way. Off the shelf solutions don't suit everyone. The larger the organisation the harder it is get an off the shelf solution to work, because changing processes to fit these can be more expensive than developing your own. Sometimes the best way forward is to have a mix of bought solutions and manual processes that bind things together. Trying to go full automated process from the get-go is often a recipe for disaster. And failure often is very very costly.
 
Pho3nix said:
Hi all,

Need some assistance with people that are actively using some integration + testing tools.
I'm looking for an application that can do automated testing for ( SQL + Visual Studio + SSIS ) and a tool that can push all changed commited that have passed testing into Production at a click of a button.

Some assistance would be appreciated.
Doing some research as well but looking for applications that people have actually used and are happy with.

Please and thank you :)
Click to expand...

TFS - most of which is included with VS - should do what you require.
 
rrh said:
TFS - most of which is included with VS - should do what you require.
Click to expand...

VS includes tools to automatically push to production with a click of a button? I must have missed it. Which button is that ?
 
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