Reducing Time to Reset a Stateful System Under Test (SUT)

The qualification of continuously running, stateful systems requires a full reset to initial state due to the state-altering nature of a finite workload. A full reset entails teardown and restart of the system to a known initial state, which can cause the workload to experience long downtimes for the duration of the reset. This disclosure describes techniques that reduce reset durations that occur in the context of testing stateful systems. In a one-time operation, an initial state is maintained in persistent storage, e.g., in cloud-based virtual disks. The system under test (SUT) is reset using the stored initial image. The time saved in the obviated teardown-and-restart procedure directly translates to reduced startup and qualification times and obviates other time-consuming procedures such as reinstalling dependent libraries and software. The techniques generally reduce interruptions in testing and are especially useful for narrow rollout windows