PaperCut Post Upgrade Test Plan

PaperCut is designed to support fully automated install-over-the-top upgrades. Normally no manual upgrade tasks need to be performed, however like all server-side applications, system administrators should devote some time to testing post upgrade. Administrators may find the following checklist useful. The test plan may equally be applied to new installs or server migrations.

The testing procedure is designed to take no longer than 15-minutes and encompasses operations in all critical areas of the application. The following, non-exhaustive, steps are a good starting point for testing post-upgrade. Depending on your requirements, these can also be found in Section 5 of our ‘Getting Started’ guides here - https://www.papercut.com/kb/Main/GettingStartedGuides .

• Verify that administrators (e.g. the built-in admin user) can log into the interface at

  http://servername:9191/admin

• View the About screen and ensure the expected version number is listed.

• View general cost and system configuration settings and ensure that settings and data are still present after the upgrade:

  • User accounts are listed under the Users section
  • Shared Accounts listed under the Account section
  • Printer cost settings (if used)
  • Historical print and log data

• Verify that end-users can log into the end-user web interface at http://servername:9191/user. e.g. use a test account to verify this.

• Log into a workstation and ensure that the client starts as expected and list the current logged in user’s account balance (assuming you have deployed the client).

• Perform a small manual adjustment on a test user account (Users -> [Select User] -> Adjustment & Charges). Ensure the adjustment is applied to the account balance and the user’s Recent Transactions as expected.

• Print a print job under a test user account and confirm:

  • Print jobs list as expected under Printers -> Print Log
  • Ensure the job has charged the user as expected.
  • Ensure a corresponding transaction is listed under the user’s recent transactions list.

• If users (or some users) are using the account selection popup to select and charge to shared accounts, perform some printing under an appropriate user account and ensure the popup is working as expected.

• Check the App. Log (Application Event Log) section for any recent Warning or Error level messages.

• If you have any PaperCut NG extensions installed (for example, custom web layout/design, extension modules, or integration with 3rd party systems), perform some tests and ensure these are working/displaying as expected.

• Verify that you have a regular off-disk backup procedure in place and is continuing to backup as per your desired schedule. (editors note: every year we hear horror stories about how someone thought things were backing up. Now is a good time to check!)

• If PaperCut is running on top of an external database system (e.g. Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, etc.), verify that your off-disk backup procedure includes the host database.

• Do you have any external equipment, scripts, resources? For example, scripts using the PaperCut API? If so, spend some time testing these external resources/services.

• Take some time to explore and play with any new features! The release history page is a good place to start to gain a quick overview of what’s new. Also check out the known issues list for any important notes associated with this release. Generally print management software is pretty run-of-the-mill but we try and slip in an exciting feature in PaperCut from time to time!