FailoverTests

Failover tests are structured procedures designed to validate a system's ability to automatically or manually switch over from a failed primary component to a redundant standby component, ensuring continuity of service and data integrity. Typical targets include servers, databases, networks, storage, and power paths within a distributed architecture configured for high availability.

Tests may be planned in staging or production environments and can range from controlled outages in a lab to chaos-engineering style fault injections that simulate real outages. Common approaches include active-passive failover with a hot standby, active-active configurations, regional or cross-site failover, and DNS or load balancer driven switchover.

Key objectives are to measure recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives (RTO and RPO), validate data integrity, verify automatic triggers, and confirm that runbooks and monitoring respond correctly. Test scenarios should document preconditions, failure modes, observed states, rollback procedures, and safety constraints to prevent unintended damage.

Challenges include accurately reproducing production traffic, avoiding data loss during switchover, and managing cascading failures or dependencies that complicate recovery. Automation and tooling play a critical role, with failover orchestration platforms, fault-injection tooling, and comprehensive monitoring that alerts operators during and after the switch.

Outcomes typically include validated resilience, identified gaps in redundancy, updated incident response procedures, and data for refining configuration and capacity planning. See also: high availability, disaster recovery, chaos engineering.