We have a mid range box with quad-core CPU and 8GB of RAM running several production systems on Red Hat Linux for a light traffic website. Those systems include an Oracle DB, LDAP, Documentum Content Repository and an Apache Tomcat server running the main Liferay-based website and a couple of additional Documentum-related webapps.
Now the client decided they want a test environment as well but they wish to utilize the existing hardware, perhaps only add more memory. Test environment would be used mostly as a learning tool for new employees so only a few users at a time max. My goal is to achieve ease of configuration and maintenance, fewer stability and performance risks are also important. The current production environment needs to stay intact. What are my options and what is the best option?
The simplistic way of thinking about it is either just meaningfully duplicate all the component systems, like a separate content repository, separate DB schema, and a separate Tomcat installation or use some kind of virtualization software like VMWare Server to create a separate virtual machine within the production server and install all the systems there (if that makes sense).