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.

cpu

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.

memory

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.

disk

Windows process kill

Terminate one or more processes (by PID or name) on a Windows VM for a configurable duration.

processkill

Windows blackhole chaos

Block all network traffic to selected destination hosts or IP addresses from a Windows VM for a configurable duration.

networkblackhole

Windows network latency

Add latency to egress traffic from a Windows VM for a configurable duration. Scope by destination IP, hostname, port, or protocol.

networklatency

Windows network loss

Drop a configurable percentage of egress packets from a Windows VM for a configurable duration.

networkloss

Windows network corruption

Corrupt a configurable percentage of egress packets from a Windows VM for a configurable duration.

networkcorruption

Windows network duplication

Duplicate a configurable percentage of egress packets from a Windows VM for a configurable duration.

networkduplication

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.

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.

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Windows memory stress

Windows memory stress consumes a configurable amount of memory on a Windows VM for a configurable duration.

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.

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Windows disk stress

Windows disk stress drives disk IO load on a Windows VM for a configurable duration. Requires administrator.

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.

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Windows process kill

Windows process kill terminates one or more processes (by PID or name) on a Windows VM for a configurable duration.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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Windows network loss

Windows network loss drops a configurable percentage of egress packets from a Windows VM for a configurable duration. Requires administrator.

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.

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Windows network corruption

Windows network corruption corrupts a configurable percentage of egress packets from a Windows VM for a configurable duration. Requires administrator.

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.

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Windows network duplication

Windows network duplication duplicates a configurable percentage of egress packets from a Windows VM for a configurable duration. Requires administrator.

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.

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