Working with a test server helps you plan the final resource requirements for your system and helps you discover resource deficiencies that you might not have anticipated.
In particular, disk resources can have a dramatic effect on the final design of the production system. For example, you may decide that a particular database requires nonstop recovery in the event of a media failure. This would necessitate configuring one or more additional database devices to mirror the critical database. Discovering these resource requirements in a test server allows you to change the physical layout of databases and tables without affecting database users.
You can also use a test server to benchmark both Adaptive Server and your applications using different hardware configurations. This allows you to determine the optimal setup for physical resources at both the Adaptive Server level and the operating system level before bringing the entire system online for general use.
