[c-nsp] SP Labs (was: 7600 Questions)

[Bob Snyder]

On Mar 28, 2008, at 12:55 AM, Justin Shore wrote:
> What I'd give to have spares...
>
> I'm curious, how many SPs out there have labs to test out new code,  
> new
> deployment options and concepts, burn in new gear, recreate bugs, etc?
> I'm trying to justify the purchase of some spare hardware to be used  
> as
> lab equipment.

I work for a large SP, and we have a number of labs and lab groups  
testing versions of code, new topologies, or major changes to  
configurations before we put them into production. It has definitely  
saved us some pain, such as letting us know to skip the first rev of  
SRC as I mentioned in an earlier post.

While we try, we don't have as much luck reproducing issues in the lab  
that we see in the field. Possibly it's that the easily caught and  
reproduced bugs get found before deployment.

Bob