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A Survey on Software Fault Tolerance Using Fault Injection Techniques

A Survey on Software Fault Tolerance Using Fault Injection Techniques

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Software Fault Tolerance Using Fault Injection

Techniques

A survey

Zeshan Khan

Deptment of Computer Science.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah University Islamabad, Pakistan.

Zeeshan.khan@jinnah.edu.pk

Abstract—the Fault tolerance is very important for the quality

of the software. There are various techniques for providing fault

tolerance. The techniques in this survey are relevant to the fault

injection. Fault injection is the best technique for the software

where we have to check the fault tolerance of software. This

technique does not provide the exact number of faults, that may

occur, but a good and cost efficient estimation of the number and

type of faults that may occur, so that the fault could be removed

or tolerated. The papers that are being discussed are about fault

tolerance using fault injection technique and the comparison

shows the technique that’s best for which type of software.

I. INTRODUCTION

The Fault tolerance is very important for the quality of the

software. Software after development and testing must be

insured about fault tolerance.

1) Testing Fault Tolerance using Software Fault Insertion

Definition

The international Federation for Information Processing (IFIP)

Working Group 10.4 has defined:

• Fault – Adjudged or hypothesized cause of an error.

• Error – Part of system state that is liable to lead to

failure, Manifestation of a fault in a system.

• Failure – Deviation of the delivered service from

compliance with the specification. Transition from

correct service delivery to incorrect service.

Each fault may have the following associated attributes:

• Type

• Locality

• Latency

• Frequency

• Severity

There are three types of faults.

• Critical Fault

• Major Fault

• Minor Fault

There are several methods for state injection:

• Process-based

• Debugger-based

• Message-based

• Storage-based

• Command-based

There are various techniques for providing fault tolerance. The

techniques in this survey are relevant to the fault injection.

The fault injection is to inject fault and then test how many

faults have been detected then on the basis of these detected

faults the quality of the technique is been insured.

Fault injection is the best technique for the software where we

have to check the fault tolerance of a software. This technique

does not provide the exact number of faults, that may occur,

but a good and cost efficient estimation of the number and type

of faults that may occur, so that the fault could be removed or

tolerated.

The papers that are being discussed are about fault tolerance

using fault injection technique and the comparison shows the

technique that’s best for which type of software.

II. METHODS

Several methods for this type of fault tolerance are being used

like GOOFI (Generic Object-Oriented Fault Injection Tool)

[1], Ferrari: A Flexible Software-based Fault & Error Injection

System [2], FIAT – Fault Injection Based Automated Testing

Environment [3], SFIT: Software Fault Insertion Testing for

Fault Tolerance[4] and SFI (Symbolic Fault Injection) [5]. The

details are described below.

A. GOOFI (Generic Object-Oriented Fault Injection Tool)

GOOFI is a tool and it works in the different phases. The

phases of GOOFI are as:

Configuration Phase: This phase contains a GUI having

different fields like name, positions to be implemented in a

specific environment to perform its advance scan-chain logic

through Thor RD microprocessor and all information stored in

the “Target System Data” database table. Few locations in

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scan-chain are read only and use to observe microprocessor

state.

Setup Phase: In this phase user select target system, and then

possible fault location or fault model can be selected from the

given list. The selected fault model will be stored in Campaign

Data table in its database. The stored information can be

modifying by the user. Other specific options like name,

workload, fault model, I/O data etc can be selected here. A loop

will work to find the actual fault. All information stored in

database can be used by this phase.

Fault injection Phase: The SCIFI fault injection algorithm

starts reading all information stored in database table named

Campaign Data. After analyzing all information provided in

database the SCIFI algorithm steps followed by the system like

how many times system halted under which circumstances

until the termination occurred. System state information is

logged to the database table Logged System State. Then target

system reinitialized and a new tool implement for fault

detection.

Analysis Phase: When the required data collected by system

the analysis phase begins. This has different points to trace out

exact fault.

* SWIFI & Pin-level can only be used when system prototype

is available.

As some tools are available with custom designed user

interface but porting a technique for a new tool can be time

consuming-process.

NFTAPE; is a recent fault tool available that depends upon

lightweight fault injectors, triggers, monitors & other

components but customized as required.

GOOFI includes all the above mentioned characteristics

available in different tool and techniques also it can be

migrated by using custom design user interface according to

requirements. Current version of GOOFI supports pre-runtime

SWIFI & SCIFI where SCIFI is Scan-Chain Implemented

Fault Injection. GOOFI has three-layered architecture.

Top or application layer has application Graphical User

Interface (GUI) with different useful options available.

Middle layer has main java classes, which include “Fault

Injection Algorithms” & “Framework”. Further “Target

System Interface” is another part of it. Finally the lowest layer

has database and interface to the database.

Two things are must to do, new window in GUI & a new fault

injection algorithm class must be implemented when adding a

new fault injection technique to GOOFI. As we know SCIFI,

SWIFI & Pin-level are abstract methods that can be obtained

during new implementation.

When support for new target system is added to GOOFI, a

new Target System Interface class must be created. For this

purpose, implement abstract methods used by the fault

injection algorithms.

In GOOFI database, Target System Data table stores all info

about the target system required for setting up new fault

injection campaigns & Campaign Data stores info needed to

conduct a campaign. Both data provided by user from GUI.

Third table logged System State stores the system state before

and after experiment.

Through SCIFI technique, a specific target system built

around the Thor RD microprocessor. Conducting fault

injection campaigns using GOOFI evolves four phases;

configuration, set-up, fault injection & analysis phase.

GOOFI Phases: There are four phases in GOOFI.

1) Effective errors

• Detected errors: The errors detected by the error de-

tection mechanisms of the target system.

• Escaped errors: The errors that escapes the error

detection mechanisms causing failures such as incor-

rect results & timeliness violations.

2) Non-effective errors

• Latent errors: The difference between correct sys-

tem state logged and after implementing fault detec-

tion tool experiment.

• Overwritten errors: No difference between correct

system states logged after the reference execution

and the system state logged after the fault injection

experiment terminated.

Some Details:

• GOOFI is a tool

• Various target systems & different fault injection

techniques can use it

• It uses Java and SQL compatible database. Cur-

rent version supports pre-runtime software imple-

mented fault injection & Scan-chain implemented

fault injection

• Identifies weakness in computer system design

• It can be implemented in an “Analytical model”

to check availability & reliability

• Previous Tools

 For Simulation (Design Cycle)

1) MEFISTO

2) VERIFY

3) DEPEND

 For Pin-level fault injection

1) RIFLE [6]

2) MESSALINE

 For Physical Systems; By using Software

Implemented Fault Injection {SWIFI}

1) XCEPTION

2) FIAT

3) FERRARI

3) Conclusion: GOOFI (Generic Object-Oriented Fault

Injection) tool is implemented in Java language to support

portable client server environment and portable SQL-

database used to implement the tool.

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Software Fault Tolerance Using Fault Injection Techniques A survey Zeshan Khan Deptment of Computer Science. Muhammad Ali Jinnah University Islamabad, Pakistan. Zeeshan.khan@jinnah.edu.pk Abstract-the Fault tolerance is very important for the quality of the software. There are various techniques for providing fault tolerance. The techniques in this survey are relevant to the fault injection. Fault injection is the best technique for the software where we have to check the fault tolerance of software. This technique does not provide the exact number of faults, that may occur, but a good and cost efficient estimation of the number and type of faults that may occur, so that the fault could be removed or tolerated. The papers that are being discussed are about fault tolerance using fault injection technique and the comparison shows the technique that's best for which type of software. I. Introduction The Fault tolerance is very important for the quality of the software. Software after development and testing must be insured about fault tolerance. 1) Testing Fault Tolerance using Software Fault Insertion Definition The international Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 10.4 has defined: Fault - Adjudged or hypothesized cause of an error. Error - Part of system state that is liable to lead to failure, Manifestation of a fault in a system. Failure - Deviation of the delivered service from compliance with the specification. Transition from correct service del ...
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