NFTAPE: a framework for assessing dependability in distributed systems with lightweight fault injectors

Many fault injection tools are available for dependability assessment. Although these tools are good at injecting a single fault model into a single system, they suffer from two main limitations for use in distributed systems: (1) no single tool is sufficient for injecting all necessary fault models; (2) it is difficult to port these tools to new systems. NFTAPE, a tool for composing automated fault injection experiments from available lightweight fault injectors, triggers, monitors, and other components, helps to solve these problems. We have conducted experiments using NFTAPE with several types of lightweight fault injectors, including driver-based, debugger-based, target-specific, simulation-based, hardware-based, and performance-fault injections. Two example experiments are described in this paper. The first uses a hardware fault injector with a Myrinet LAN; the other uses a Software Implemented Fault Injection (SWIFI) fault injector to target a space-imaging application.