Storage Testing Tutorial: What is, Type, Concepts

Storage Testing

Storage testing is a type of software testing used to verify if the software application under test stores the relevant data into appropriate directories and whether it has enough space to prevent unexpected terminations due to insufficient disk space. It is also called Storage Performance Testing.

Why Storage Testing?

Slow storage means slow response times, long running queries and lower application availability
Slow storage is an overhead to maintenance of server infrastructure
It helps to find its practical storage limitation before deployment
It helps to understand how system will react when new hardware device is replaced or upgraded

Types of Storage Testing

Application Testing: Application testing with sample queries with production like environment
Application Simulation: Conduct the testing using standard software similar to a target application
Benchmarking: Conduct the testing using standard software

Common testing concepts involved during storage testing

Types of Storage Testing	Common storage testing activities example
Application Testing:	Compare OLTP response times Compare batch run times Compare sustained streaming rates
Application Simulation:	Test peak storage IOPS for databases Test peak storage for data streaming environment or data streaming environments Test storage latency for messaging or other single threaded applications
Benchmarking	Testing for data corruption

Mistakes while performing Storage Testing

Monitoring the wrong server performance
Without clearing the server cache comparing the storage devices
During testing forgetting to monitor processor utilization
Testing storage performance with file copy commands

Conclusion:

Software Engineering, Storage Testing techniques ensures the application under test, stores the relevant data in the appropriate directories.