What is failover testing?

Failover testing tests the capability of the system to shift to its backup resources or allocate new resources when a failure occurs. A system must be capable of balancing the load in case of a system slowdown in order to pass failover tests.

Steps for performing failover tests

1. Analyse system requirements and come up with failover designs accordingly.
2. Decide performance measurement criteria and set benchmarks.
3. Prepare test plans.
4. Conduct test plans.
5. Prepare a report about issues that were faced.

Factors to consider before conducting failover testing

1. What is the cost of system failure to the manufacturer/company?
2. What is the cost of maintaining the system if a failure does occur under load?
3. What is the likelihood of the failure occurring? Failures that are likely to cause more damages should be prioritized.
4. What is the time required to fix the issues that caused system failure?

The following illustration shows what happens in the event of a system failure. If a server crashes, it can balance the load with the help of backup servers, or the entire system can fail. The failure can occur due to multiple reasons, including a network failure or a malware attack.