Testing Script for ArcMap/ArcGIS Pro

[LuyangRen]

Hi GISers,

I am wondering, how do you test ArcMap/ArcGIS Pro after installation to confirm it runs well when you are managing more than several machines installed with ArcGIS Desktop in your institution?

I work in a higher-ed and we have ArcGIS Desktop installed on all the machines on campus. I have a list of things I need to test manually on some machines. However, we keep having new issues once a while. So the list of things to be tested gets longer and longer and I want to cover as much as I can in the testing so we could detect issues ahead of time instead of in the middle of the semesters. I am thinking that I should write some scripts to run testing automatically on machines.

I would like to hear any discussion or suggestion about it.

Thank you so much

Luyang

[curtvprice]

Luyang also posted this query on the HIGHERED-L email list and I had this response.

All I can suggest is to do a test install of your three types of machines with all software in the package before you do deployment and make sure that it all works before you start installing everything. It’s all about consistency. It sounds like the issues are running into are much easier to head off at the planning stage. The best way to catch software conflicts is to keep track of issues you have during the year so you can plan for them the following semester/year's install packages. In extreme cases (like the coming TLS patch for ArcMap) I post update patch scripts midyear.

I used to work for USGS and set up deployment scripts we used nationwide. Once we started standardizing to one-install scripts (now this is done using SCCM packages) most of these kinds of issues went away. As for software incompatibilities, the best way to deal with them is install ArcGIS last as the ArcGIS installer will leave things like .dll paths and file associations correct for ArcGIS.