Preparing for the ArcGIS 10 release
Over the next few weeks, the Support Center News blog will be posting some blogs to help prepare you for our upcoming release of ArcGIS 10. These blog posts will cover a lot of topics, such as testing your system for the upcoming release, new functionality and how it may be used, some of the changes to the software or the interface, and other support-oriented topics concerning ArcGIS 10 that will help you be more successful with our software upon the upcoming release.
You will also be seeing more posts on a regular basis. We at Esri Support Services hope that our blog posts are helpful and that you enjoy seeing more from the Support Center News blog. Please feel free to comment and send us any feedback. NOTE: You must be logged in to post comments.
Thank you for continuing to read and enjoy the Support Center News blog!
-Collin W., Support Center News blog content manager, Esri Support Services
Testing, testing, and more testing
With ArcGIS 10 coming soon and Pre-release being used by some of the user community, some of you might wonder if it would be a good idea to setup a testing/pre-production/sandbox environment. It’s a good idea to have a testing environment prior to going live, because it will help you to become familiar with the new technology and will make the transition to a production environment run more smoothly. I’ve compiled some ideas on things you might consider when thinking about a testing/sandbox.
- Mimic the setups in the production environment.</B> It will make life easier to have a testing environment that’s close in terms of configurations to where the final deployment is going to take place. It will save a lot of time and effort in learning how the application and OS will coexist and will help in figuring out how to resolve any issues that may arise early on. If you’re planning to a have a distributed install or some sort of load balancing, you better have that in your sandbox as well.
- Consider virtualization.</B> Some users are already using virtual machines in the production environment, so why don’t you use them in the testing environment? A lot of vendors and companies are virtualizing their servers for lots of reasons these days. It will help you cut costs, have a low-maintenance and high-available machine, and you don’t have to throw as much money on cooling a big server. Also, you’ll get a chance to run the software on multiple platforms if you want. The good news is that ArcGIS 10 is supported on a Virtual Machine.
- Test different scenarios.</B> Whether it’s a geoprocessing map service or just running ArcMap on a virtual machine, you’re more than welcome to test the software at all levels. You can install, deploy, and get the end users to use the software to make sure you’re comfortable before going live.
- Let us know.</B> We are always looking for our customers’ feedback and doing our best to help them out. If you tried a geoprocessing tool that will work on one shapefile and not on another, we’d love to hear from you and assist you in resolving the issue. If you think that a certain tool or functionality should be improved or want to see an additional feature in ArcGIS 10, let us know. You can put your ideas on the new ArcGIS Ideas Web site: a place where you can go online and post any idea(s) that would like to see in the ArcGIS software, and the GIS community can vote for or against the idea(s).
- Mostafa Radwan, Support Analyst - ArcGIS Server Unit, Esri Support Services.