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Recovery Testing
In this article, I am going to discuss Recovery Testing. Please read our previous article where we discussed Stress Testing. At the end of this article, you will understand the following important pointers which are related to Recovery Testing.
- What is Recovery Testing?
- Why is Recovery Testing Crucial?
- When Must the Recovery Testing be Done?
- Who Carries Out the Recovery Testing?
- Mention the Common Failures which need Recovery Testing
- What are the steps to Perform before Executing the Recovery Test?
- Explain the Process of Recovery Testing
- Example of Recovery Testing
- What are the Advantages of Recovery Testing?
- What are the Disadvantages of Recovery Testing?
What is Recovery Testing?
Recovery testing is a kind of software testing that examines a program’s capacity to bounce back from failures such as network outages, software/hardware crashes, etc. Recovery testing’s goal is to ascertain whether software operations can be maintained in the event of a catastrophe or integrity loss. Reprocessing transactions to the failure point and rolling back software to a known-integrity state are also components of recovery testing.
To put it another way, we may say that recovery testing is carried out to see how quickly and effectively the application can develop or learn the capabilities of the software after it has experienced any software, hardware, network, or other issues. To ensure that recovery is done correctly, the software must fail in a variety of ways. To prevent any data loss in the event that the recovery testing is unsuccessful, we must first create a backup and preserve it in a secure area.
Why is Recovery Testing Crucial?
If we are creating an application for a user who will determine whether our company succeeds or fails, recovery testing is important. As a result, we must create software that is sufficiently consistent and recoverable.
When Must the Recovery Testing be Done?
- We must assess the system-specific recovery testing before every release or update.
- We need to make sure that everyone is aware of their respective roles and duties in order to conduct recovery testing.
- When there is a loss or calamity, critical company operations can typically continue.
Who Carries Out the Recovery Testing?
A variety of roles are involved in Recovery testing, which is a component of Business Continuity Planning (BCP). The recovery testing can be carried out by the following interested parties:
- The Production Service and Service Management teams, who are knowledgeable and skilled in handling such outages, may carry it out.
- The basic systems that the hardware maintains are known to the Technical SMEs.
- The IT operations teams that oversee servers and other hardware infrastructure can carry out recovery testing.
Mention the Common Failures which need Recovery Testing
- The external device is not working
- Network problem
- Loss of wireless network signal
- Power outage
- Not responding, server
- Database saturation
- Unable to connect to an external server
- DLL file not found
- Physical circumstances
- Terminated services
What are the steps to Perform before Executing the Recovery Test?
Before performing the Recovery testing technique, a tester must make sure that the following stages are carried out:
- Recovery Analysis: It’s critical to assess the system’s capacity to distribute additional resources, such as servers or additional CPUs. This would make it easier to comprehend how modifications linked to recovery might affect how the system functions. Additionally, each potential failure, its potential impact, its severity, and how to handle it should be researched.
- Test Plan Preparation: Creating test scenarios with consideration for the environment and the outcomes of the recovery analysis.
- Test Environment Preparation: Designing the test environment in accordance with the findings of the recovery analysis.
- Maintaining Backups: It’s important to save copies of important data, including database and software state changes. Additionally, if the data is crucial, it is crucial to back it up in several different places.
- Allocation of Recovery Workers: It is crucial to assign recovery personnel who are knowledgeable and skilled enough for the recovery testing being done.
- Documentation – The focus of this stage is on recording every action taken before and throughout the recovery testing so that the system’s performance in the event of a failure may be evaluated.
Explain the Process of Recovery Testing
The recovery testing life cycle consists of the following phases:
- Standard Operations: In the phase of standard operations, we will set up the system in accordance with the hardware and software specifications, allowing the specific system to function as intended. It is used to specify how the system is intended to operate.
- Disaster and Failure Occurrence: We can detect the system’s many problems during the subsequent recovery testing phase, and those failures are as follows:
- Power outage
- Equipment failure
- Physical circumstances
- The server is not reachable, among other things.
- Interruption to Standard Process: It results in losses for us in terms of sales, money, client relationships, reputation in the marketplace, etc.
- Process of Recovery: The recovery process is used in recovery testing to avoid the most significant losses in businesses and have backup plans with little influence on the interruption system.
- Rebuild Process: The rebuild process, which includes the already mentioned papers and processes that must be followed, is the final stage of the recovery testing process. Additionally, all configuration files and directories are recovered during this phase in order to recover the lost data.
Example of Recovery Testing
Real-life recovery testing in software testing involves deliberately causing a failure or crash in an application and then assessing its ability to recover gracefully. Imagine a scenario where a web-based e-commerce platform experiences a sudden surge in traffic during a flash sale event. Recovery testing aims to ensure that the system can handle such unexpected situations without losing data or compromising user experience.
In this example, the recovery test would simulate a crash by abruptly shutting down the application’s database server or web server during peak traffic. Testers would then observe how the system reacts and whether it can recover to a stable state once the servers are restored.
The test evaluates various aspects, including error handling, data integrity, and transaction rollback mechanisms. The team will assess whether the application recovers without data corruption, duplicate orders, or any unexpected behavior. Additionally, they’ll verify that the recovery process doesn’t adversely impact ongoing transactions or result in financial losses.
Conducting real-life recovery testing helps identify weak points and bottlenecks in the system, allowing developers to make necessary improvements. The ultimate goal is to ensure the software is robust, resilient, and capable of restoring normal functionality in the face of unexpected failures.
What are the Advantages of Recovery Testing?
- Eliminates potential weaknesses in the system, enhancing its quality and ensuring that it performs as intended.
- Disaster Recovery Testing is another name for recovery testing. Many businesses have disaster recovery facilities to ensure that there is a backup system in case one of the systems is destroyed or fails for any other reason.
- As potential weaknesses are found and fixed in the system, risk can be eliminated.
- Enhanced performance when errors are fixed, making the system more dependable and performing better in the event of a failure.
What are the Disadvantages of Recovery Testing?
- Recovery testing takes time because there are many stages and preparations to make both before and after the exam.
- As the process of recovery testing is done under his supervision, the recovery employees must be trained. To guarantee that recovery testing is carried out correctly, the tester must be taught. He should have sufficient data and backup files to undertake recovery tests.
- In some instances, the possible defects or problems are unpredictable. It is challenging to pinpoint the precise cause of the same, but since the software’s quality must be preserved, a variety of test cases are built and run to make sure any potential defects are eliminated.
In the next article, I am going to discuss Exploratory Testing. Here, in this article, I try to explain Recovery Testing. I hope you enjoy this Recovery Testing article.