Our next beta testing phase is still quite a few months away (around March), but we are already thinking about how to make it a great experience for everyone involved.
That is why we are reaching out to you now. Your feedback from past experiences, or the reasons why you decided to participate or not, is the most valuable resource we have for planning. Hearing from you early gives us plenty of time to make real improvements before things get busy.
We have put together a survey about the beta process itself—what you like, and what could be better. Your ideas will directly help us shape everything for the next round, from the tools we use to the documentation we provide.
If you have a few minutes to share your thoughts, it would be a huge help for our preparation.
What would really help is starting to provide us with a proper “Simulation Mode” again.
In the past (when it was working) it was relatively easy to create a test environment with all your “live data” by “cloning” your site.
Nowerdays, its not just “omd cp $production $testsite” anymore as there are so many little obstacles you need to be aware of - just to name a few:
disable all notifications
delete notification spool files
disable all distributed monitoring connections
create “dummy data” for hosts - datasource = cat ~/var/check_mk/agent_output/$HOSTNAME$
changing and adapting ports you used (avoid using the same)
disable cronjobs ( custom ones as well?)
…
…
Its something which was tehre in the past, worked and you guys really need to bring back. This will open up the beta testing phase for many many more who are finding it challanging to create or clone there environment just for some quick testing. Which at the end will result in a much more stable production.
