Testing Time

Reading an article by Steven Woody on "Software Longevity Testing" in Better Software today, September 2009 edition, and though I would record the important dates/times that should be considered when testing.

• GPS systems reach 999,999,999 seconds on September 14, 2011.
• GPS systems weeks rollover on April 7, 2019.
• UNIX 32-bit time overruns on January 19, 2038.
• System uptime 32 bit counter rollover. Hint, use a debugger to set the counter to just before rollover and verify all date/time related functions after a rollover occurs.
  1 mS = 24.9 days
  2 mS = 49.7 days
  2 mS unsigned = 99.4 days
  5 mS = 124.3 days
  10 mS = 248.6 days
  10 mS unsigned = 497.1 days

New term Soak Test; a long period of time running the application under heavy load without letting it up for air. Place the system under increasing load until the load-regulating, rate-limiting or discard mechanisms become active then maintain this load for hours/days.

New term Quiescent Test; a long period of idle time followed by work to verify that she wakes up and is ready to go after things have been quite. What happens when processes are swapped out, connections dropped, sleep mode, powersave, firewall timed out, key process not woken up in time, et cetera.