Proxy simulation service for testing stateless systems

• US 9,830,173 B1
• Filed: 04/09/2015
• Issued: 11/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2015
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kothandaraman, Raghunathan, Dasigi, Praveen
• Primary Examiner(s): Thangavelu, Kandasamy
• Application Number:
  US14/683,045
• Time in Patent Office: 964 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

An enhanced proxy simulation service can be used to test a complex stateless system, such as a fulfillment network, that depends on upstream and downstream processes in order to operate. The enhanced proxy simulation service can be configured to send an event, such as an order request, so as to appear to be sent from a process upstream of the system; and can be configured to receive a request from the system, such as a request to charge payment information, so as to appear as a downstream process of the system. The proxy simulation service can store events received from the system and apply a set of rules to the stored events to construct a simulated response to the last event received from the system. The simulated response can then be sent to the system being tested.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a simulation history database configured to store data regarding a plurality of events; and

a computing device in communication with the simulation history database, the computing device configured to at least;

receive, from a computing system, a first event during a first test, wherein the computing system does not store information regarding a state of the computing system, wherein the computing system is configured to send events to a downstream process, and wherein the computing device is configured to receive the first event as a proxy of the downstream process;

determine a unique identifier associated with the first test;

store data associated with the first event and the determined unique identifier in the simulation history database;

retrieve, from the simulation history database, all events data associated with the determined unique identifier;

determine a simulated response to the received first event based at least in part on an analysis of the retrieved events data; and

transmit the simulated response to the computing system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is further configured to determine the simulated response based on at least one rule associated with the first test that is applied to the retrieved events data.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one rule associated with the first test indicates that the simulated response is based on at least one of a number of events associated with the events data retrieved from the simulation history database that are related to the first event, an order of events associated with the events data retrieved from the simulation history database that are associated with the first test, or a timestamp associated with the first event.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the state of the computing system comprises an identification of one or more events transmitted by the computing system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is further configured to at least:

start, after receiving the first event, a timer that expires after a first period of time;

determine, in response to a determination that no events are received from the computing system during the first period of time, whether the computing system is running;

end the first test in response to a determination that the computing system is not running; and

continue to wait to receive a second event from the computing system for a second period of time in response to a determination that the computing system is running.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is further configured to at least receive, from the computing system, a second event during the first test, wherein the computing system is configured to send events to an upstream process, and wherein the computing device receives the second event as a proxy of the upstream process.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is further configured to at least:

receive, from the computing system, a second event during a second test running in parallel with the first test, wherein the computing device is configured to receive the second event as the proxy of the downstream process;

determine a second unique identifier associated with the second test;

store the second event and the determined second unique identifier in the simulation history database;

retrieve, from the simulation history database, all events data associated with the determined second unique identifier;

determine a second simulated response to the received second event based at least in part on an analysis of the retrieved events data associated with the determined second unique identifier; and

transmit the second simulated response to the computing system.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the simulated response comprises a plurality of commands.

9. A computer-implemented method comprising:

as implemented by one or more computing devices configured with executable instructions,

receiving, from a computing system, a first event during a first test, wherein the computing system does not store information regarding a state of the computing system, wherein the computing system is configured to send events to a first process, and wherein the one or more computing devices are configured to receive the first event as a proxy of the first process;

storing data associated with the first event and a unique identifier associated with the first test in a simulation history database;

retrieving, from the simulation history database, all events data associated with the unique identifier;

determining a simulated response to the received first event based at least in part on an analysis of the retrieved events data; and

transmitting the simulated response to the computing system.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the first process is one of a downstream process that depends on data from the computing system or an upstream process that provides data from which the computing system depends.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein determining the simulated response further comprises determining the simulated response based on at least one rule associated with the first test that is applied to the retrieved events data.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the at least one rule associated with the first test indicates that the simulated response is based on at least one of a number of events associated with the events data retrieved from the simulation history database that are related to the first event, an order of events associated with the events data retrieved from the simulation history database that are associated with the first test, or a timestamp associated with the first event.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the information regarding the state of the computing system comprises an identification of one or more events transmitted by the computing system.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

starting, after receiving the first event, a timer that expires after a first period of time;

determining, in response to a determination that no events are received from the computing system during the first period of time, whether the computing system is running;

ending the first test in response to a determination that the computing system is not running; and

continue waiting to receive a second event from the computing system for a second period of time in response to a determination that the computing system is running.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, from the computing system, a second event during a second test running in parallel with the first test, wherein the one or more computing devices are configured to receive the second event as the proxy of the first process;

storing the second event and a second unique identifier associated with the second test in the simulation history database;

retrieving, from the simulation history database, all events data associated with the second unique identifier;

determining a second simulated response to the received second event based at least in part on an analysis of the retrieved events data associated with the second unique identifier; and

transmitting the second simulated response to the computing system.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon executable program code that direct a computing device to perform operations when executed by a simulation service operating on the computing device, the operations comprising:

receiving, from a computing system, a first event during a first test, wherein the computing system does not store information regarding a state of the computing system, wherein the computing system is configured to send events to a first process, and wherein the computing device is configured to receive the first event as a proxy of the first process;

storing data associated with the first event and a unique identifier associated with the first test in a database;

retrieving, from the database, data for at least one event associated with the unique identifier;

determining a simulated response to the received first event based at least in part on an analysis of the retrieved data for the at least one event; and

transmitting the simulated response to the computing system.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first process is one of a downstream process that depends on data from the computing system or an upstream process that provides data from which the computing system depends.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise determining the simulated response based on at least one rule associated with the first test that is applied to the retrieved data for the at least one event.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the information regarding the state of the computing system comprises an identification of one or more events transmitted by the computing system.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

starting, after receiving the first event, a timer that expires after a first period of time;

determining, in response to a determination that no events are received from the computing system during the first period of time, whether the computing system is running;

ending the first test in response to a determination that the computing system is not running; and

continue waiting to receive a second event from the computing system for a second period of time in response to a determination that the computing system is running.