When developing a web application and quickly iterating, it’s imperative that you can quickly test changes on a multitude of browsers and platforms. If you want coverage on IE6-9, the latest Chrome, the latest Safari, the latest Firefox, and maybe the FF 3.6+ branch, you will need several machines. Fortunately, they can be virtual, and those machines can run more than one browser.

With all of this in mind, I set out to set up the following automated, distributed testing grid on one decent physical machine running off a external drive.

So what’s the set up and why?

Virtual Machine 1: Win7
Browsers:
IE9, latest Chrome, latest Firefox
Grid:
Running as both the hub with multiple web drivers

Virtual Machine 2: XP SP3
Browsers:
IE8, FF 3.6

Virtual Machine 3:
Browsers:
IE7

Virtual Machine 4:
Browsers:
IE6

Physical Host Machine: Mac OS X 10.6.8, Quad Core, 8 GB
Mac Browsers (obviously):
latest Safari, latest Chrome, latest Firefox, Firefox 3.6+

More notes to come …