Facilitating large-scale testing using virtualization technology in a multi-tenant database environment

1. A method for testing in a database system, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of one or more changes to a software application, wherein each change corresponds to a different version of the software application;

generating one or more virtual machines for a version of the software application in response to the indication, wherein the one or more virtual machines test the version of the software application, wherein the generating of the one or more virtual machines comprises:

retrieving a copy of a test environment template;

storing the test environment template in a base virtual machine; and

generating one or more virtual machine clones from the base virtual machine,

wherein the one or more virtual machines are the virtual machine clones; and

redirecting at least one type of command from the one or more virtual machine clones to the base virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each version of the software application is tested by a different set of virtual machines.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising tearing down the one or more virtual machines after they complete testing of the software application.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of command is a read command.

5. A tangible and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions thereon for testing in a database system, the instructions when executed by a processor cause the processor to:

receive an indication of one or more changes to a software application, wherein each change corresponds to a different version of the software application;

generate one or more virtual machines for a version of the software application in response to the indication, wherein the one or more virtual machines test the version of the software application, wherein to generate the one or more virtual machines, the instructions further cause the processor to:

retrieve a copy of a test environment template;

store the test environment template in a base virtual machine; and

generate one or more virtual machine clones from the base virtual machine,

wherein the one or more virtual machines are the virtual machine clones; and

redirect at least one type of command from the one or more virtual machine clones to the base virtual machine.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 5 , wherein each version of the software application is tested by a different set of virtual machines.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 5 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to tear down the one or more virtual machines after they complete testing of the software application.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 5 , wherein the at least one type of command is a read command.

9. An apparatus for testing in a database system, the apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a storage device storing one or more stored sequences of instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to:

receive an indication of one or more changes to a software application, wherein each change corresponds to a different version of the software application;

generate one or more virtual machines for a version of the software application in response to the indication, wherein the one or more virtual machines test the version of the software application, wherein to generate the one or more virtual machines, the instructions further cause the processor to:

retrieving a copy of a test environment template;

storing the test environment template in a base virtual machine; and

generating one or more virtual machine clones from the base virtual machine,

wherein the one or more virtual machines are the virtual machine clones; and

redirect at least one type of command from the one or more virtual machine clones to the base virtual machine.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein each version of the software application is tested by a different set of virtual machines.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to tear down the one or more virtual machines after they complete testing of the software application.

12. A method for testing in a database system, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of one or more changes to a software application, wherein each change corresponds to a different version of the software application;

retrieving a copy of a test environment template in response to the indication;

storing the test environment template in a base virtual machine;

generating a virtual machine clone from the base virtual machine;

testing a version of the software application with the virtual machine clone; and

redirecting at least one type of command from the virtual machine clone to the base virtual machine.