Freedom251 › Chaos Engineering Platforms
Canonical Chaos Engineering Platform
What Canonical Chaos Engineering Platform is
Canonical Chaos Engineering Platform deploys chaos engineering infrastructure and runs experiments to see whether a system recovers after faults. Its documented getting-started path uses Terraform and Juju to deploy the platform on Kubernetes. The tutorial’s example deletes a pod and uses a resilience probe to check whether the workload recovers. The sample control plane includes Litmus Auth, Litmus Backend, Litmus ChaosCenter, and MongoDB; the tutorial connects Litmus infrastructure to that control plane and uses a self-signed-certificates charm as the example system under test. The project is described as open source and welcomes community contributions and feedback. It is free, with Linux, self-hosted, and web listed as platforms. Documentation describes TLS for internal service traffic and external client connections, and recommends trusted CA certificates for production. It also records a security limitation: an upstream bug prevents the Litmus control plane from communicating with MongoDB over TLS, leaving that traffic unencrypted. The current scope is Kubernetes chaos testing; it does not cover charmed VM cloud chaos testing. Charmed Litmus currently wraps only the control plane, with execution-plane charming described as future work. The tutorial calls for a machine with 8 GB RAM, 50 GB of free disk space, and Ubuntu or another operating system that supports snapd. The documentation also notes that Litmus retains user settings in MongoDB after teardown, which can complicate resetting a changed admin password.
Who it suits
This platform suits teams that want an open source tool for running Kubernetes fault experiments and checking workload recovery. It is geared toward users comfortable deploying its infrastructure with Terraform and Juju on a machine that supports snapd.
What it does well
- Free and open source, with community contributions welcomed.
- Tutorial demonstrates a pod deletion and recovery probe.
- Supports Kubernetes chaos testing.
- Experiment scheduling and blast-radius controls are listed.
- Documentation describes TLS for internal and external connections.
What to know first
- The current scope excludes charmed VM cloud chaos testing.
- Charmed Litmus currently wraps only the control plane.
- A documented upstream bug leaves control-plane to MongoDB traffic unencrypted.
- A forgotten changed admin password may require manually deleting database tables or redeploying MongoDB to reset.
Limits
The platform focuses on Kubernetes chaos testing and does not cover charmed VM cloud chaos testing. Charmed Litmus currently wraps only the control plane; execution-plane charming is future work. The documented MongoDB TLS issue leaves that traffic unencrypted.
Getting started
- Visit the getting-started documentation.
- Prepare a machine with 8 GB RAM and 50 GB free disk space.
- Use Ubuntu or another operating system that supports snapd.
- Follow the tutorial to deploy with Terraform and Juju on Kubernetes.
- Use trusted CA certificates for production deployments.
Verdict
Teams focused on Kubernetes chaos experiments should consider the platform for its open source model and documented recovery checks. Teams needing charmed VM cloud testing should look elsewhere for those capabilities.
Questions
Is Canonical Chaos Engineering Platform free?
Yes. It is described as a free, open source project.
What does the platform do?
It deploys chaos engineering infrastructure and runs experiments to check whether a system recovers from faults.
What deployment does the tutorial use?
It uses Terraform and Juju to deploy the platform on Kubernetes.
What machine does the tutorial require?
The tutorial specifies 8 GB RAM, 50 GB free disk space, and Ubuntu or another operating system that supports snapd.
Does it test cloud faults?
Cloud fault injection is listed as unavailable, and the platform's current scope does not cover charmed VM cloud chaos testing.
What TLS limitation is documented?
An upstream bug prevents the Litmus control plane from communicating with MongoDB over TLS, leaving that traffic unencrypted.
Facts from Canonical Chaos Engineering Platform's own pages
- Components
- The tutorial’s example control plane includes Litmus Auth, Litmus Backend, Litmus ChaosCenter, and MongoDB. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Credential limitation
- Litmus does not clear MongoDB tables on teardown, so a forgotten changed admin password requires manually deleting those tables or redeploying the MongoDB charm to reset. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- The getting-started tutorial deploys the platform using Terraform and Juju on Kubernetes. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Deployment prerequisites
- The tutorial lists 8 GB RAM, 50 GB free disk space, an Ubuntu or snapd-compatible environment, and a Linux shell for its commands. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Execution plane
- The Charmed Litmus project currently wraps only the control plane; the documentation says charming the execution plane is future work. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Execution plane limitation
- The documentation says Charmed Litmus currently wraps only the control plane; charming the execution plane is described as future work. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Experiments
- The tutorial demonstrates a pod-deletion experiment with a resilience probe to check whether a workload recovers. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Founded
- 2004 · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 28 Sept 2026
- Integrations
- The tutorial integrates Litmus infrastructure with the control plane and uses a self-signed-certificates charm as its example system under test. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Interface
- The tutorial accesses Litmus ChaosCenter through a browser at the deployed unit's IP address and port 8185. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Kubernetes scope
- The platform currently focuses on chaos testing in Kubernetes environments and does not currently target Charmed VM cloud chaos testing. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Open source
- Canonical describes the platform as an open source project that welcomes community contributions and feedback. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Password limitation
- Litmus retains user settings in MongoDB after teardown, and the documentation says a forgotten changed admin password may require manually deleting database tables or redeploying MongoDB to reset. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- The platform deploys chaos engineering infrastructure and runs experiments to check whether a system under test recovers from faults. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Scope limitation
- The platform currently focuses on Kubernetes chaos testing and does not cover charmed VM cloud chaos testing. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Security limitation
- The documentation says an upstream bug prevents the Litmus control plane from communicating with MongoDB over TLS, leaving that traffic unencrypted. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Setup requirements
- The getting-started tutorial specifies a machine with 8 GB RAM, 50 GB free disk space, and Ubuntu or another operating system that supports snapd. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- Support and community
- The project documentation directs users to its GitHub issue trackers for known issues, bugs, and feature requests. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- TLS
- The documentation describes TLS integration for internal service interactions and external client connections, and recommends trusted CA certificates for production deployments. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- TLS guidance
- Canonical's TLS how-to recommends certificates signed by a trusted CA and safely stored, for example with a Vault charm, for production deployments. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
- TLS limitation
- The documentation says the Litmus control plane cannot currently communicate with MongoDB over TLS, so that traffic remains unencrypted even when MongoDB has a TLS certificates relation. · canonical-chaos-engineering.readthedocs-hosted.com, 9 Oct 2026
Where Canonical Chaos Engineering Platform stands on Freedom251
- Chaos Engineering Platforms#7 of 25