In
software testing
Software testing is the act of examining the artifacts and the behavior of the software under test by validation and verification. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to apprecia ...
, recovery testing is the activity of testing how well an
application is able to recover from
crashes, hardware failures and other similar problems.
Recovery testing is the forced failure of the software in a variety of ways to verify that recovery is
properly performed. Recovery testing should not be confused with
reliability testing
Reliability engineering is a sub-discipline of systems engineering that emphasizes the ability of equipment to function without failure. Reliability describes the ability of a system or component to function under stated conditions for a specifi ...
, which tries to discover the specific point at which failure occurs. Recovery testing is basically done in order to check how fast and better the application can recover against any type of crash or hardware failure etc. Recovery testing is simulating failure modes or actually causing failures in a controlled environment. Following a failure, the
failover
Failover is switching to a redundant or standby computer server, system, hardware component or network upon the failure or abnormal termination of the previously active application, server, system, hardware component, or network in a computer net ...
mechanism is tested to ensure that data is not lost or corrupted and that any agreed service levels are maintained (e.g., function availability or response times).
Type or extent of recovery is specified in the requirement specifications. It is basically testing how well a system recovers from crashes, hardware failures, or other catastrophic problems
Examples of recovery testing:
# While an application is running, suddenly restart the computer, and afterwards check the validness of the application's data integrity.
# While an application is receiving data from a
network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics
...
, unplug the connecting cable. After some time, plug the cable back in and analyze the application's ability to continue receiving data from the point at which the network connection disappeared.
See also
*
Fault injection
In computer science, fault injection is a testing technique for understanding how computing systems behave when stressed in unusual ways. This can be achieved using physical- or software-based means, or using a hybrid approach. Widely studied phys ...
*
Failsafe
In engineering, a fail-safe is a design feature or practice that in the event of a specific type of failure, inherently responds in a way that will cause minimal or no harm to other equipment, to the environment or to people. Unlike inherent safe ...
References
Software testing
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