We need to run tests on localized platforms that put a certain load on our hardware resources, because in just a few weeks we may need many servers and clients (Windows 2003 and Windows 2008, Vista, XP, Red Hat, etc. ) in several languages.
Usually we relied on blade servers with Windows 2003 and VMWare, but sometimes they outgrow punctual needs and also have the problem that the acquisition and deployment process is rather slow if the environment needs to grow.
Can Amazon EC2 / S3 be used in the following scenario?
- Install VMWare (the desktop because we need the ability to take pictures) on Amazon AMI.
- Download existing VMWare images from S3 and run them on EC2 instances (possibly 3 or 4 server or client OSs on each EC2 instance.
We are more interested in the ability to very easily start or stop snaphsots VMware for relatively short tests. It's just for configuration testing, not a production environment to actually serve the user workload. The only real user is the tester. These configurations may take only a few weeks, and then turn them off for a few months until the next release requires them again.
Is EC2 / S3 a viable alternative for this type of testing purpose?
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