Pipeline Stage Reference

Last updated on Aug 24, 2026

Complete field reference for Disaster Recovery (DR) test pipelines. For a step-by-step walkthrough, go to Get Started with DR Testing.

Feature Flag

DR Testing is currently behind a feature flag (CHAOS_DR_TESTING_ENABLED). Contact your Harness sales representative to get it enabled for your account.

DR Tests list

Go to Resilience Testing → DR Tests. The list shows pipelines that contain at least one Disaster Recovery stage.

Column	Description
Pipeline name	Display name and auto-generated identifier.
DR test stages	Names of the `DRTest` stages in the pipeline.
Recent executions	Sparkline of recent run statuses.
Last execution	Status and timestamp of the most recent run, or Never.
Last modified	Timestamp and user who last saved the pipeline.

Filterable by Search and Tag(s). Default sort: Last Modified (New -> Old).

Create new DR Test dialog

Shown when you select + New DR Test.

Field	Required	Description
Name	Yes	Display name for the Disaster Recovery stage. Also used to derive the pipeline name (`<Name> Pipeline`).
Id	Auto-generated	Unique identifier derived from the name. Editable via the pencil icon. Must be unique within the project.
Description	No	Free-text description of the disaster scenario.
Tags	No	Key or `key:value` labels for organizing and filtering.
Objective	No	Goal or success criteria for this DR test.

Select Continue in Pipeline Studio to create the pipeline and open it. Select Cancel to discard the dialog without creating anything.

Harness creates:

A pipeline with identifier derived from the name and tag module: drtest.
A stage of type DRTest whose name and identifier match the dialog values.
An empty Execution canvas, so you add Chaos Probe, Chaos Fault, Chaos Action, and other steps yourself.

Pipeline Studio: Overview tab

The stage overview is pre-populated from the create dialog. All fields remain editable.

Stage overview fields

Field	Description
Name	Stage display name.
Id	Stage identifier. Auto-derived from name, editable.
Description	Optional stage description.
Tags	Optional labels.
Objective	Optional objective for this disaster recovery test.

Advanced section (within Overview)

Field	Description
Timeout	Maximum allowed runtime for the stage. Accepts duration format: `w`, `d`, `h`, `m`, `s`. Example: `2h 30m`.
Stage Variables	Key-value variables scoped to this stage. Select + New Variable to add. Reference them in steps with Harness expressions.

Pipeline Studio: Environment tab

Configuration section

Field	Description
Specify Environment	Select the Harness environment for the stage, or select + New Environment to create one.

Chaos infrastructure is not selected on this tab. Each Chaos Fault, Chaos Probe, or Chaos Action step selects its own infrastructure.

Failure Strategy section

Defines how the pipeline responds when the stage encounters an error. You can add multiple strategies for different error types.

On failure of type

Select one or more failure types, or check All Errors:

Failure type	Description
Authentication Errors	Invalid or expired credentials.
Connectivity Errors	Network or connectivity issues reaching a target.
Timeout Errors	Operations that exceed their configured timeout.
Authorization Errors	Insufficient permissions.
Verification Failures	Step or probe verification conditions not met.
Delegate Provisioning Errors	Failures provisioning or connecting a Harness Delegate.
Unknown Errors	Errors that do not match any other category.
Policy Evaluation Failures	Governance policy checks that fail.
Execution-time Inputs Timeout Errors	Runtime input prompts that were not fulfilled in time.
Approval Rejection	An approval step was explicitly rejected.
Delegate Restart	The Delegate restarted during execution.
User Marked Failure	A step was manually marked as failed.

Perform Action

Action	Description
Rollback Pipeline	Roll back all stages in the pipeline that support rollback.
Retry Step	Retry the failed step a configured number of times.
Abort	Stop pipeline execution immediately.
Mark As Failure	Mark the stage as failed.
Rollback Stage	Roll back only this stage, using the Rollback path on the Execution tab.

Pipeline Studio: Execution tab

The Execution tab has two canvases, toggled with Execution | Rollback:

Execution: The forward recovery workflow.
Rollback: Compensating steps for when a failure strategy selects Rollback Stage or Rollback Pipeline. Harness does not enter this path automatically on probe failure unless your failure strategy invokes rollback.

Select Add Step, then choose Add Step, Add Step Group, Use template, or Create with AI.

In the Step Library, open Resilience Testing to add Chaos Fault, Chaos Probe, Chaos Action, or Chaos Experiment. Open Approval to add Harness Approval or other approval steps. An empty Disaster Recovery stage can be saved; approval, fault, and probe steps are available but not required by schema validation before save.

Chaos Probe

Validates a condition against your system for a configured duration.

Field	Required	Description
Name	Yes	Display name for the step.
Id	Auto-generated	Step identifier.
Chaos Probe	Yes	The probe identity to run, such as an HTTP or Kubernetes health probe from your project.
Select Chaos Infrastructure	Yes	Target infrastructure in the form `<environment>/<infrastructure>`.
Duration	Yes	How long the probe runs (for example `1m`, `10m`). Placeholder text shows examples such as `10s`, `1m`, `1h`.
Runtime Inputs	Depends on probe	Name and value pairs the selected probe exposes. Required inputs are marked. Pin a field to supply the value at run time.

YAML shape:

- step:
    type: ChaosProbe
    name: ChaosProbe_1
    identifier: ChaosProbe_1
    spec:
      identity: ad-http-test-1
      duration: 10m
      infraReference: env91x/infra91xadvanced
      tasks:
        - identifier: ad-http-test-1
          values:
            - name: VARIABLES_URL
              value: https://example.com

Chaos Fault

Injects a failure into the target system.

Field	Required	Description
Name	Yes	Display name for the step.
Id	Auto-generated	Step identifier.
Chaos Fault	Yes	Fault identity to inject. This can be a project fault or a template-backed identity such as `custom.<template-id>`.
Select Chaos Infrastructure	Yes	Target infrastructure in the form `<environment>/<infrastructure>`.
Runtime Inputs	Depends on fault	Inputs the selected fault exposes. Pin fields you want prompted at run time.

YAML shape:

- step:
    type: ChaosFault
    name: ChaosFault_1
    identifier: ChaosFault_1
    spec:
      identity: custom.template-scope-test-eps
      infraReference: env91x/infra91xadvanced

Chaos Action

Runs a predefined chaos action from Resilience Testing.

Field	Required	Description
Name	Yes	Display name for the step.
Id	Auto-generated	Step identifier.
Chaos Action	Yes	The action identity to run.
Select Chaos Infrastructure	Yes	Target infrastructure in the form `<environment>/<infrastructure>`.
Duration	Yes	How long the action runs.
Runtime Inputs	Depends on action	Inputs the selected action exposes, such as `VARIABLES_DURATION`. Pin fields for runtime prompts.

YAML shape:

- step:
    type: ChaosAction
    name: ChaosAction_1
    identifier: ChaosAction_1
    spec:
      identity: k8s-delay-variable
      duration: 10s
      infraReference: env91x/infra91xadvanced
      tasks:
        - identifier: k8s-delay-variable
          values:
            - name: VARIABLES_DURATION
              value: 10s

You can also add standard Harness steps (shell script, HTTP, Harness Approval, notification) in the same stage.

Use templates and Save as Template

Use template: From the Add Step menu, opens Step and Step Group Templates. Select a template to insert it into the Execution (or Rollback) canvas. Template-backed faults often appear as an identity such as custom.<template-id> in YAML.
Save as Template: On a Chaos Probe, Chaos Fault, or Chaos Action drawer, saves the current step configuration as a reusable template.

Variables

Open Variables in Pipeline Studio to manage:

Pipeline variables (name, identifier, tags, custom variables).
Stage variables for the Disaster Recovery stage (Add Variable under Stage Variables).

Reference them from step inputs with Harness expressions such as <+stage.variables.myVar>.

Pipeline Studio: Advanced tab

Delegate Selector

Field	Description
Define Delegate Selector	Optional. Add selector tags to route this stage to a specific Harness Delegate. Leave empty to use any available Delegate.

Conditional Execution

Option	Description
If the pipeline executes successfully up to this point	Default. Stage runs only if preceding stages passed.
If the previous pipeline or stage fails	Stage runs only if the immediately preceding stage failed.
Always	Stage always runs.
JEXL Condition	Stage runs only if the custom expression evaluates to `true`.

Looping Strategy

Strategy	Description
Matrix	Run the stage for each combination of values across variable axes.
Repeat	Run the stage a fixed number of times, optionally with a concurrency limit.
Parallelism	Split stage iterations to run in parallel up to a configured maximum.

Failure Strategy (Advanced tab)

Same failure type options as the Environment tab. Additional actions available here:

Action	Description
Manual Intervention	Pause and wait for a user to choose the next action.
Ignore Failure	Treat the failure as a warning and continue.
Retry Step	Retry the failed step.
Mark As Success	Override the failure and mark the step or stage as succeeded.
Abort	Stop execution immediately.
Proceed with Default Values	Continue using default values for unresolved inputs.
Mark As Failure	Mark the step or stage as failed.
Rollback Pipeline	Roll back all stages that support rollback.

Resilience Tests tab on execution

On a pipeline execution, open Resilience Tests. The tab lists Resilience Testing steps from the selected stage and reports Probe Results for probe outcomes.

Use it to review probe pass or fail results after a DR run.
For Chaos Fault and Chaos Action detail, use step Details, Step Logs, and Console View. The tab is not a fault catalog.

Get Started with DR Testing: Create and run your first DR test.
Concepts: RTO, RPO, environments, and failure strategies.

DR Tests list​

Create new DR Test dialog​

Pipeline Studio: Overview tab​

Stage overview fields​

Advanced section (within Overview)​

Pipeline Studio: Environment tab​

Configuration section​

Failure Strategy section​

On failure of type​

Perform Action​

Pipeline Studio: Execution tab​

Chaos Probe​

Chaos Fault​

Chaos Action​

Use templates and Save as Template​

Variables​

Pipeline Studio: Advanced tab​

Delegate Selector​

Conditional Execution​

Looping Strategy​

Failure Strategy (Advanced tab)​

Resilience Tests tab on execution​

Related​

DR Tests list

Create new DR Test dialog

Pipeline Studio: Overview tab

Stage overview fields

Advanced section (within Overview)

Pipeline Studio: Environment tab

Configuration section

Failure Strategy section

On failure of type

Perform Action

Pipeline Studio: Execution tab

Chaos Probe

Chaos Fault

Chaos Action

Use templates and Save as Template

Variables

Pipeline Studio: Advanced tab

Delegate Selector

Conditional Execution

Looping Strategy

Failure Strategy (Advanced tab)

Resilience Tests tab on execution

Related