Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions and answers about Harness Chaos Engineering
Find answers to the most common questions about Harness Chaos Engineering, from getting started to advanced implementation topics.
Getting Started
What is Chaos Engineering?
Chaos Engineering is the discipline of experimenting on a system to build confidence in the system's capability to withstand turbulent conditions in production. It involves intentionally introducing failures in a controlled manner to identify weaknesses before they cause outages.
Why should I use Chaos Engineering?
Chaos Engineering helps you:
Identify weaknesses before they cause production outages
Build confidence in your system's resilience
Improve incident response through practice and preparation
Reduce MTTR (Mean Time To Recovery) during real incidents
Validate disaster recovery procedures and assumptions
Is Chaos Engineering safe?
Yes, when done properly. Chaos Engineering emphasizes:
Controlled experiments with defined blast radius
Comprehensive monitoring and automatic rollback
Starting small and gradually increasing scope
Safety measures and circuit breakers
Team coordination and communication
How is Harness Chaos Engineering different from other tools?
Harness Chaos Engineering offers:
Enterprise-grade platform with advanced security and compliance
Comprehensive fault library covering infrastructure, applications, and cloud services
Native CI/CD integration for continuous resilience testing
Advanced automation with intelligent rollback and remediation
Team collaboration features including GameDays and shared experiments
Implementation
Where should I start with Chaos Engineering?
Follow this progression:
Start in staging environments, never production initially
Begin with simple experiments like pod restarts or CPU stress
Use small blast radius affecting only a few instances
Set up comprehensive monitoring before running experiments
Gradually expand scope and complexity as confidence grows
What experiments should I run first?
Recommended first experiments:
Pod/Container deletion - Test application restart resilience
CPU stress - Validate auto-scaling and performance under load
Network latency - Test timeout handling and user experience
Database connection failures - Validate connection pooling and failover
Memory pressure - Test memory management and garbage collection
How do I choose what to test?
Consider these factors:
Business criticality - Start with most important user journeys
Historical incidents - Test scenarios based on past outages
System dependencies - Focus on single points of failure
Recent changes - Validate resilience of new features or infrastructure
Compliance requirements - Test disaster recovery procedures
How often should I run chaos experiments?
Frequency depends on your maturity:
Getting started: Weekly experiments in staging
Intermediate: Daily automated experiments, weekly production tests
Advanced: Continuous chaos testing integrated into CI/CD
Mature: Real-time chaos testing with intelligent automation
Technical Questions
What platforms does Harness Chaos Engineering support?
We support:
Kubernetes (all major distributions: EKS, AKS, GKE, OpenShift)
Linux (Ubuntu, RHEL, CentOS, Debian, Fedora)
Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Windows (limited fault types)
VMware vSphere
Container platforms (Docker, containerd, CRI-O)
Can I run chaos experiments in production?
Yes, but with proper precautions:
Start with staging and build confidence first
Use small blast radius (1-5% of instances initially)
Run during low-traffic periods to minimize user impact
Have comprehensive monitoring and automatic rollback
Coordinate with teams and stakeholders
Follow change management procedures
How do I measure the success of chaos experiments?
Key metrics include:
Resilience score - Overall system resilience rating
Recovery time - How quickly systems return to normal
Error rates - Impact on user-facing errors
Performance metrics - Response time and throughput impact
Business metrics - Revenue, user experience, SLA compliance
What happens if an experiment goes wrong?
Harness Chaos Engineering includes multiple safety mechanisms:
Automatic rollback when thresholds are breached
Manual stop capability at any time
Blast radius limits to contain impact
Comprehensive monitoring to detect issues quickly
Team notifications for immediate response
Security and Compliance
Is Harness Chaos Engineering secure?
Yes, we implement enterprise-grade security:
SOC 2 Type II certified
ISO 27001 compliant
End-to-end encryption for data in transit and at rest
RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) for fine-grained permissions
Audit logging for all activities and changes
SAML/SSO integration with enterprise identity providers
Can I use Chaos Engineering in regulated industries?
Absolutely. Many regulated industries use chaos engineering:
Financial services - Test trading systems and payment processing
Healthcare - Validate patient data systems and medical devices
Government - Test critical infrastructure and citizen services
Aerospace - Validate flight systems and ground operations
Key considerations:
Compliance documentation - Maintain detailed experiment records
Change management - Follow established change control procedures
Risk assessment - Evaluate and document potential impacts
Stakeholder approval - Get necessary approvals before testing
How do you handle data privacy?
We protect data privacy through:
Data minimization - Collect only necessary experiment data
Encryption - All data encrypted in transit and at rest
Access controls - Strict access controls and audit trails
Data retention - Configurable retention policies
Regional compliance - Support for GDPR, CCPA, and other regulations
Troubleshooting
My experiment won't start. What should I check?
Common issues and solutions:
Permissions - Verify RBAC permissions for target resources
Connectivity - Check network connectivity to target systems
Resource availability - Ensure target resources exist and are healthy
Configuration - Validate experiment configuration and parameters
Dependencies - Check if required services or tools are running
Experiments are failing unexpectedly. How do I debug?
Debugging steps:
Check experiment logs for error messages and details
Verify target system health before and during experiments
Review monitoring data for system behavior patterns
Validate success criteria and thresholds
Test in isolation to identify specific failure points
How do I handle false positives in monitoring?
Strategies for reducing false positives:
Tune thresholds based on historical data and normal variation
Use multiple metrics to validate actual impact
Implement grace periods to account for temporary fluctuations
Regular threshold review and adjustment based on system changes
Composite health checks combining multiple indicators
My team is resistant to Chaos Engineering. How do I get buy-in?
Building team support:
Start with education about chaos engineering benefits
Share success stories from other organizations
Begin with low-risk experiments to build confidence
Involve skeptics in experiment design and execution
Demonstrate value through improved incident response
Address concerns about safety and potential impact
Advanced Topics
Can I create custom faults?
Yes, through several methods:
BYOC (Bring Your Own Chaos) - Upload custom fault scripts
API integration - Use REST APIs to trigger custom failures
Custom probes - Create application-specific health checks
Script execution - Run custom scripts during experiments
How do I integrate with my existing monitoring tools?
Harness integrates with popular tools:
Prometheus/Grafana - Native metrics integration
Datadog - Real-time monitoring and alerting
New Relic - APM and infrastructure monitoring
Splunk - Log analysis and correlation
PagerDuty - Incident management and escalation
Can I automate chaos experiments in CI/CD pipelines?
Yes, we provide:
GitHub Actions integration
Jenkins plugins and pipeline steps
GitLab CI integration
Azure DevOps extensions
Native Harness CI/CD integration
REST API for custom integrations
How do I scale chaos engineering across multiple teams?
Scaling strategies:
Standardized templates for common experiment types
Shared experiment library for reusable scenarios
Team-specific permissions and resource isolation
Centralized reporting and analytics
Training programs and best practice sharing
Center of Excellence for chaos engineering governance
Pricing and Licensing
How is Harness Chaos Engineering priced?
Pricing is based on:
Infrastructure targets - Number of nodes/instances under test
Experiment executions - Number of experiments run per month
Advanced features - Enterprise features and support levels
Deployment model - SaaS vs. Self-Managed pricing
Contact sales for detailed pricing information.
Is there a free tier available?
Yes, we offer:
Free tier with limited experiments and targets
Trial period for full feature evaluation
Developer accounts for learning and experimentation
Open source components for basic chaos testing
What support options are available?
Support tiers include:
Community support - Forums and documentation
Standard support - Business hours email support
Premium support - 24/7 support with SLA guarantees
Enterprise support - Dedicated customer success manager
Getting Help
Where can I find more information?
Resources available:
Documentation - Comprehensive guides and tutorials
Community Forum - Ask questions and share experiences
Slack Community - Real-time chat with users and experts
FAQs - Frequently asked questions and solutions
Training Programs - Structured learning paths
How do I contact support?
Support channels:
In-app support - Submit tickets directly from the platform
Email support - support@harness.io
Phone support - Available for premium customers
Emergency support - 24/7 for critical issues (enterprise customers)
Can I request new features?
Yes, we welcome feedback:
Feature requests through in-app feedback
Community voting on proposed features
Direct feedback to customer success managers
Beta programs for early access to new features
Still have questions?
If you can't find the answer you're looking for:
Check our detailed FAQs for technical questions
Join our Community Forum to ask questions
Contact Support for technical assistance
Schedule a demo to speak with our experts
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