Why Do We Do Endurance Test?

Endurance Testing

Endurance tests are non-functional software tests that test the software under heavy loads over an extended period to assess the behaviour of software applications during prolonged use. The main resolution of endurance testing is to ensure that the application can withstand protracted stresses without degrading response time.

This type of testing is made in the final phase of the power cycle. Endurance testing is a lengthy process and sometimes takes up to a year. It may include the application of external loads such as internet traffic or user actions. It distinguishes endurance testing from stress testing, which typically ends in a few hours or so.

Endurance means ability; in other words, you can call endurance tests to skill tests.

Goals Of Endurance Tests

The primary determination of endurance testing is to check for memory leaks.

To find out how the system works under heavy use.

To ensure that the system response time remains the same or better after a long time than at the beginning test.

Determine the number of users or transactions; a particular system will support and meet performance goals.

To handle future loads, we need to know how many additional resources (such as CPU capacity, hard drive capacity, memory usage, or network bandwidth) are useful to support home-usage—getting high.

Endurance tests are usually carried out either by overloading the system or by reducing some system resources and assessing the consequences.

It ensures that memory errors or leaks do not occur after they consider to be relatively “normal”.

What to monitor in Endurance Testing

Test for memory leak – Check performs to verify if there is a memory leak in the application, which may cause the system or the OS to crash.

Test closure connection between layers of the system. Joining between films of the system doesn’t closes correctly; it may block modules in the system.

Test the database connection closed – If the database connection is not closed successfully, it may cause a system crash

Test Response Time – The system is tested for system response time as the application becomes less efficient due to prolonged use of the system.

How to do Endurance tests

Below is the primary testing approach to the endurance test

Test Environment – Identify the hardware, software, and operating system required for the endurance testing and assign roles and tasks within the team, etc. The situation should be ready before the test is run. You also need to estimate the combined database production size and annual growth. It is necessary so that you can test how your application will react after one, two or five years.

The test plan, scenarios – Based on the type of test – manual or automation or a combination of both, test case design, reviews, and execution should plan. System load tests, breakpoint tests, etc. should also be part of the test plan. System loading tests determine the breakpoint in the application.

Test Estimate – Provide an estimate of how long it will take for the testing phase to complete. It analyzes based on several samples involved and the number of exam cycles required.

Risk analysis – analysing the risk and taking appropriate preventive measures. Prioritizing test cases according to the risk factor and identifying the risk listed below and the issues that the tester may phase out during the endurance test.

Testing Schedule – Determine the budget, deliverables on time. Endurance Testing applies a huge but natural load of transactions to the system/application for a continuous period.

Example Of An Endurance Test

While stress testing pushes the system under test to its limits, endurance testing pushes the application to its limits over time.

For example, the more complex issues – memory leaks, database server usage, and unresponsive system – occur when the software runs for an extended period. If you skip the endurance tests, your chances of catching these faults before deployment are relatively low.

• Endurance test tools
• WebLOAD
• LoadComplete
• Apache JMeter
• LoadRunner
• Look
• LoadUI
• OpenSTA
• Rational performance tester

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Advantages

• It helps in determining how the workload can handle the system under load.
• Provides precise data with which the customer can validate or improve their infrastructure requirements.
• Identifies performance issues that can occur when a system has been running at a high level for an extended period
• Typical problem identifies in smaller targeted performance tests, which means that the app remains available within a short time even under heavy loads.
• The endurance test also used to check whether there is a decrease in performance after a long period of use

Disadvantages

• It is often difficult to define the level of stress that is worth applying.
• Endurance testing can lead to application and network failures that can lead to significant disruption if the test environment is not isolated.
• Permanent loss or corruption of data can occur by overloading the system.
• Resource utilization remains very high once the stress is removed.
• Some application components are not responding.
• The end-user detects unhandled exclusions.