Chaos faults for Windows
Introduction
Windows faults disrupt resources running on a Windows Server VM. All Windows faults run through the Windows chaos agent installed as a service on the target VM. Go to Windows requirements and security considerations for prerequisites. Basic faults run as a non-administrator user; Advanced faults (network family, blackhole, disk stress) require the agent to run as administrator.
Windows CPU stress
Drive CPU utilization to a configurable percentage across a configurable number of cores on a Windows VM for a configurable duration.
Windows memory stress
Consume a configurable amount of memory on a Windows VM for a configurable duration so you can test how the workload behaves when memory headroom shrinks.
Windows disk stress
Drive disk IO load on a Windows VM for a configurable duration so you can test how the workload behaves when storage throughput is saturated.
Windows process kill
Terminate one or more processes (by PID or name) on a Windows VM for a configurable duration.
Windows blackhole chaos
Block all network traffic to selected destination hosts or IP addresses from a Windows VM for a configurable duration.
Windows network latency
Add latency to egress traffic from a Windows VM for a configurable duration. Scope by destination IP, hostname, port, or protocol.
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Windows CPU stress
Windows CPU stress drives CPU utilization to a configurable percentage across a configurable number of cores on a Windows VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when CPU headroom shrinks: whether latency stays inside the SLA, whether the OS scheduler keeps critical processes responsive, and whether monitoring detects CPU saturation.
Windows memory stress
Windows memory stress consumes a configurable amount of memory on a Windows VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when memory headroom shrinks: whether the OS swaps gracefully, whether GC-heavy .NET applications pause, and whether monitoring detects the saturation.
Windows disk stress
Windows disk stress drives disk IO load on a Windows VM for a configurable duration. Requires administrator.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when storage throughput saturates: whether IO latency stays inside the SLA, whether databases queue writes correctly, and whether monitoring detects the saturation.
Windows process kill
Windows process kill terminates one or more processes (by PID or name) on a Windows VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when a critical process is killed: whether Windows Service Recovery restarts it inside the SLA, whether replicas absorb the load, and whether monitoring detects the regression.
Windows blackhole chaos
Windows blackhole chaos blocks all network traffic to selected destination hosts or IP addresses from a Windows VM for a configurable duration. Requires administrator.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when a downstream dependency is unreachable: whether retries and timeouts work, whether circuit breakers open correctly, and whether the workload fails over to a backup endpoint.
Windows network latency
Windows network latency adds latency to egress traffic from a Windows VM for a configurable duration. Scope by destination IP, hostname, port, or protocol. Requires administrator.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when a downstream dependency becomes slow: whether retries and timeouts work, whether circuit breakers open correctly, and whether monitoring detects the regression.
Windows network loss
Windows network loss drops a configurable percentage of egress packets from a Windows VM for a configurable duration. Requires administrator.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when packet loss spikes: whether TCP retransmits stay within the SLA, whether application-layer retries recover correctly, and whether cluster membership stays healthy.
Windows network corruption
Windows network corruption corrupts a configurable percentage of egress packets from a Windows VM for a configurable duration. Requires administrator.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when packets are corrupted: whether TCP checksums catch the corruption, whether application retries recover, and whether monitoring detects the regression.
Windows network duplication
Windows network duplication duplicates a configurable percentage of egress packets from a Windows VM for a configurable duration. Requires administrator.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when packets are duplicated: whether TCP de-duplication handles the load, whether UDP receivers handle duplicates correctly, and whether the bandwidth spike triggers alerts.