What is SOAK TESTING?


Soak testing is a type of performance testing which tests the system’s performance characteristics and stability over a long period of time, ie. under continuous usage of the software. It handles issues related to memory allocation, log files and database resource utilisation. It is a system level of testing to find whether the system will stand up to very large volume of data usage over longer period of time and observing the  effect caused to the design.
Characteristics of soak testing:
The soak testing characteristics are
·         The duration of soak test is determined by the time available.
·         Any application should run without any disturbance if it requires over a longer period.
·         It should cover all the situations which are agreed upon with stake holders.
·         All system has its maintenance window period of time and the time between those window periods is the key driver for determining the scope of soak test.
For example in an mobile applications playing video games leaving the video game in a prolonged period of time in an running state. In a various modes of operation just pausing in the title screen and observing the behaviour whether the application can handle the continuous load.

Why to do soak testing?

A system can operate normally when used for 2 hours but the same system when used continuously for 10 hours can cause some problems or may even crash. To predict those unexpected failures this testing is done
The strategy of soak testing
1.       In the long session of soak testing many days multiple activities are performed in limited time frame.
2.       The important part of soak testing is to check the available memory in the CPU and the amount of memory that will be in usage.
The software systems are expected to provide the stable performance under the continuous usage of the software by the users. Hence the soak testing is done.
Questions
1.       What is Soak testing?

2.       What is the need of soak testing?

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