soaktesting

Soak testing, also called soak test or endurance testing, is a non-functional software testing technique in which a system is subjected to a typical or higher-than-normal workload for an extended period to observe its behavior under continuous use. The goal is to evaluate stability, reliability, and performance over time, and to uncover issues that only appear after long operation sessions.

Key objectives include detecting memory leaks and resource leaks (such as file handles or database connections), gradual performance degradation, data integrity problems, and failure modes that emerge under sustained load. The test typically uses a realistic workload profile and runs for hours or days in a staging or pre-production environment.

The testing process involves establishing a representative workload, configuring monitoring and logging, and ensuring test data remains valid over time. Critical metrics to monitor include response time, throughput, error rates, and resource usage such as CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network I/O, along with database connections and thread counts. Observations focus on timing anomalies, fragmentation, caching behavior, and any gradual drift in performance.

Outcomes of soak testing may include identification of memory or resource leaks, performance degradation trends, system crashes, and data corruption or loss. Results inform debugging, capacity planning, and resilience improvements, and help validate recovery procedures and failover mechanisms.

Practices and considerations include running tests in a controlled environment separate from production, ensuring adequate test data and seeding, and implementing automated alerts and reporting. Soak testing complements other performance tests by emphasizing long-term stability and reliability.