System and Method for Production Testing of an Application

• US 20170177464A1
• Filed: 12/18/2015
• Published: 06/22/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Raman, Madhusoodhanan, Patel, Prabhat Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 10,380,005 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3672 Test management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3684 for test design, e.g. generating new test cases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries

Abstract

A method includes receiving an updated application instance, a database instance, or any combination thereof, provisioning a first subset of application servers with the updated application instance or access to the updated database instance, and identifying a subset of users from a plurality of users to provide access to the updated instance for testing purposes. The method further includes authenticating users of the plurality of users, providing users of the subset of users with access to the updated instance and other users of the plurality of users with access to a production instance during a testing period, and, after the testing period, providing the other users with access to the updated instance.

Claims

1. A method for controlling access to versions of an application, comprising:

authenticating a first user and a second user, the first user having privileges to access a test instance of the application and the second user having privileges that prevent access to the test instance of the application and allowing access to a production instance;

directing a first request from the first user to a first application server of a plurality of application servers, the first application server providing the test instance to the first user;

directing a second request from the second user to a second one of the application servers, the second application server providing the production instance to the second user;

querying a first database instance by the first application server in response to the first request;

querying a second database instance by the second application server in response to the second request;

sending a response to the first request from the first application server to the first user based on the results of the query to the first database instance; and

sending a response to the second request from the second application server to the second user based on the results of the query to the second database instance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the test instance and the production instance are provided by separate file systems.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first database instance and the second database instance are separate editions of a database.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the database and editions thereof are provided by a database server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the authentication of the first and second users is performed by a database server.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising elevating the test instance to the production instance and providing the second user with access after a test period.

7. A method comprising:

receiving an updated application instance, a database instance, or any combination thereof;

provisioning a first subset of application servers with the updated application instance or access to the updated database instance;

identifying a subset of users from a plurality of users to provide access to the updated instance for testing purposes;

authenticating a subset of other users of the plurality of users;

providing the subset of users with access to the updated instance and the other users with access to a production instance during a testing period; and

after the testing period, providing the other users with access to the updated instance.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising eliminating access to the production instance after the test period.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising direct, by a load balancer, the subset of users to the first subset of application servers and other users to a second subset of application servers provisioned with a production instance and access to a production database instance.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising provisioning, after the test period, a second subset of application servers with the updated application instance or access to the updated database instance and directing, by the load balancer, the subset of users and the other users to the first and second subsets of application servers to access the updated application instance or updated database instance.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein authentication is performed by a database server.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the production database instance and the updated database instance are maintained as separate database editions.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the production application instance and the updated application instance are maintained on separate file systems.

14. A system for providing an application, the system comprising:

a load balancer configured to balance requests across a plurality of application servers;

a database server configured to maintain an updated database instance and a production database instance;

the plurality of application servers including a first subset of application servers configured to provide the updated application instance and a second subset of application servers configured to provide the production application instance;

the database server further configured to authenticate a first subset of users as having access to the updated instance and a second subset of users as having access to the production instance;

the load balancer configured to direct requests from the first subset of users to the first subset of application servers, and to direct requests from the second subset of users to the second subset of application servers;

the first subset of application servers further configured to provide the first subset of users with access to the updated application instance and to query the updated database instance; and

the second subset of application servers further configured to provide the second subset of users with access to the production application instance and to query the production database instance.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a first and a second file systems, the first file system configured to maintain an updated application instance and the second file system configured to maintain a production application instance.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the updated database instance and the production database instance are maintained as editions of a database.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein, after a test period is completed, the second subset of users is granted access to the updated application instance and the updated database instance.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein, after a test period is completed, the second subset of application servers is reconfigured to provide the updated application instance.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein, after a test period is completed, the load balancer is reconfigured to direct requests from the first and second subset of users to the plurality of application servers including the first and second subsets of application servers.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein user access to the production instance is eliminated after the test period.