Systems and methods for testing software applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021173767-A1
Application number	US-201916709413-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 10, 2019
Priority date	Dec 10, 2019
Publication date	Jun 10, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods and systems are presented for testing software applications in a production-like environment that simulates real-world failures of production environments. A production environment has production applications and databases configured to process user requests from users for conducting transactions with a service provider. A testing system provides an intermediate interface that enables a software application operating in the test environment to access at least one of a production application or a production database. The intermediate interface can be configured based on different failure configurations to simulate production component failures in the production environment. Failure injection and randomized failure modes can be employed, including for network-related failures (latency, dropped packets, connections, etc.) that might occur in the production environment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system, comprising:
a non-transitory memory; and one or more hardware processors coupled with the non-transitory memory and configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations comprising:
configuring a testing environment based on one or more failure configurations to simulate one or more failure modes applicable to a production environment;
receiving a transaction request from a user device;
generating a copy of the transaction request;
transmitting the transaction request to the production environment for processing the transaction request, wherein a first transaction processing engine within the production environment is configured to process the transaction request by accessing one or more production database nodes that are in the production environment;
transmitting the copy of the transaction request to the testing environment for processing the copy of the transaction request, wherein a second transaction processing engine within the testing environment is configured to process the copy of the transaction request by accessing the one or more production database nodes according to the one or more failure configurations;
obtaining, from the second transaction processing engine, a response to the processing of the copy of the transaction request; and
determining a status of the second transaction processing engine based on the response.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the production environment comprises data corresponding to a non-testing application accessible by a plurality of end users.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the configuring the testing environment comprises configuring an availability setting of the one or more database nodes, wherein the availability setting places an artificially induced unavailability setting an at least one of the one or more production database nodes to simulate a database node failure node.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving, from the second transaction processing engine, a request to access a first production database node of the one or more production database nodes for processing the copy of the transaction request; determining an availability of the first production database node based on the availability setting; and determining to provide the second transaction processing engine access to the first production database node based on the availability of the first production database node.

5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the first production database node is determined to be unavailable based on the availability setting, and wherein the operations further comprise restricting the second transaction processing engine from accessing the first production database node.

6 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the first transaction processing engine is further configured to access the first production database node based on a second availability setting included in the production environment.

7 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the first database node is determined to be available based on the availability setting, and wherein the operations further comprise providing the second transaction processing engine access to the first database node.

8 . A method, comprising:
obtaining a request that requires processing by a software application; accessing, by one or more hardware processors, a testing environment based on one or more failure configurations to simulate one or more failure modes applicable to a production environment, wherein the production environment comprises one or more production applications and one or more production database nodes configured to process user requests from users to perform transactions with a service provider using a plurality of software applications that includes the software application; transmitting the request to the testing environment for processing the request, wherein a testing software application within the testing environment is configured to process the user request by accessing the one or more production database nodes in the production environment according to the one or more failure configurations; obtaining, from the testing software application, a response to the processing of the user request; and determining a status of the software application based on the response.

9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising modifying a schema file that defines a database scheme of a database associated with the one or more production database nodes to simulate a database schema compatibility failure mode, and wherein the testing software application is configured to access the one or more production database nodes according to the modified schema file.

10 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising modifying a timeout threshold for connecting to at least one of the one or more production database nodes to simulate a reduction of network speed failure mode, and wherein the testing software application is configured to access the one or more production database nodes according to the modified timeout threshold.

11 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
obtaining a second request; transmitting the second request to the testing environment for processing the second request, wherein the testing software application is configured to process the second request by accessing the one or more production database nodes according to second one or more failure configurations of the testing environment that simulates second one or more failure modes applicable to the production environment.

12 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising dynamically re-configuring the testing environment based on different one or more failure configurations to simulate different types of failures in the production environment.

13 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
intercepting a database write request transmitted by the testing software application for writing data to a first database node; and disregarding the database write request.

14 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
determining that the testing software application passes a set of testing requirements based on the status; and in response to determining that the testing software application passes the set of testing requirements, presenting on a user device a report indicating that the software application is available for the production environment.

15 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:
configuring a testing environment based on one or more failure configurations to simulate one or more failure modes applicable to a production environment, wherein the production environment comprises one or more production applications and one or more production database nodes configured to process user requests from users to perform transactions with a service provider; obtaining a transaction request; transmitting the transaction request to the testing environment for processing the transaction request, wherein a software application within the testing environment is configured to process the transaction request by accessing at least one of the one or more production database nodes and/or at least one of the one or more production applications according to the one or more failure configurations; obtaining, from the software application, a response to the processing of the transaction request; and determining a status of the second transaction processing engine based on the response.

Assignees

• Paypal Inc

Inventors

• Zhang Pengshan
• Zhang Jun
• Yun Xiaohan
• Chen Xin

Classifications

• G06F11/3698 Primary

  Environments for analysis, debugging or testing of software · CPC title

• G06F16/211

  Schema design and management · CPC title

• G06F11/3684

  for test design, e.g. generating new test cases · CPC title

• G06F11/3688 Primary

  for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites · CPC title

• G06F9/466

  Transaction processing · CPC title