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Reliability and Stability Testing

Mar 28, 2019
4 min read

Reliability and stability testing allows you to model system behavior during regular and irregular situations, such as shutdowns, restarts of various system components, or lengthy loads on the system. This testing approach aligns with the principles of site reliability engineering, which focuses on ensuring scalable, reliable systems by addressing issues proactively through automation and strategic planning.

Problems it will solve

  • Minimizing the risks related to the inoperability of business processes or system components after the failure of several system components by promptly discovering problems during the reliability and fail-safety tests. This helps address key differences between reliability and availability, ensuring the system remains functional and stable.
  • Additionally, minimizing the risks of possible system performance degradation under loads after its restoration can be achieved by comparing the system performance indicators during the reliability and stability tests. Proper error management can also help calculate and manage error budgets, ensuring performance is maintained within acceptable limits.

Deliverables

  • 01
    The report on the stability testing includes
  • Information about the number of defects discovered in the operation of different business processes and system components after the failure of a certain component, as well as their severity
  • A list of defects with a description of the problem and a method fafter the failure of a certain component
  • Information about the restoration time needed for the system component and business processes, and also about the necessary conditions
  • Information about the changes in the IT system performance after the restoration of the system operability, and about the precise parameters of the IT system response speed: response times of user operations (under different loads) and server-loading resources (cpu time, Memory, I/O)
  • Recommendations for the system architecture and infrastructure improvements
  • Description of load profiles (MS Word)
  • 02
    Test data (The format of the test system used)
  • 03
    Load-testing scripts
  • 04
    External system emulators
  • 05
    Load scenarios
  • 06
    Scripts for generation/depersonification of the DB
  • 07
    Data pulls
  • 08
    Manual for conducting the tests

Scope of work

  • 01
    Creation of load testing methodology
  • Collection and analysis of production environment statistics to provide insights into system performance, a core focus for site reliability engineers tasked with maintaining scalability and stability.
  • Coordination of the performance requirements
  • Determination of business processes and load scenarios for reliability testing
  • Determination of components for reliability testing
  • Description of the interactions with the external systems
  • Calculation of the intensity and determination of the load profiles for reliability testing
  • Description of the requirements for the DB volumes
  • Creation of a test plan
  • 02
    Creation of a test model
  • Development of load scripts
  • Development of external system emulators
  • Creation of load scenarios
  • Creation of scripts for generation/depersonification of the DB
  • Creation of data pulls
  • Manual for conducting the test
  • 03
    Test preparation
  • Checking the operability of the test environment
  • Installing the testing tool on the load stations
  • Tuning the monitoring tools
  • Conducting trial tests
  • 04
    Conducting stability tests
  • Launch tests for checking the system reliability in accordance with the load scenarios
  • Shutdown/restart of the chosen system components
  • Launch tests to check the fail-safety of the system
  • Results analysis
  • 05
    System analysis
  • Analysis of the bottlenecks in the system performance
  • Analysis of the influence of a shutdown/restart of the chosen components on the business processes
  • Analysis of the system restoration time after a shutdown/restart of the chosen components
  • Preparation of the recommendations for changes in the system architecture and infrastructure or the development of relevant regulations

Service Limitations

Stability testing is not functional and is not intended to discover functional bugs. However, all discovered functional defects will be noted and presented to the customer.

Related Services:

Tools and licences

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