ACCELERATED TESTING USING SIMULATED FAILURES IN A MULTI-DEVICE STORAGE SYSTEM

Apparatus and method for accelerated testing of a multi-device storage system. In some embodiments, the storage system includes a server adapted to communicate with a user device, and a plurality of data storage devices adapted to store and retrieve data objects from the user device. The server maintains a map structure that describes the data objects stored on the data storage devices. A fault injection module is adapted to induce simulated failures of selected data storage devices in relation to a time-varying failure rate distribution associated with the data storage devices that indicates an observed failure rate over a first time interval. The simulated failures are induced by the fault injection module over a second time interval shorter than the first time interval. The server operates to modify the map structure responsive to the simulated failures.