Failures in a Distributed System
Failures in a Distributed System Paper
Phyllis Lenoir
POS/355
November 19, 2012
Asho Rao
A distributed system is an application that executes a collection of protocols to coordinate the actions of multiple processes on a network, where all component work together to perform a single set of related tasks. A distributed system can be much larger and more powerful given the combined capabilities of the distributed components, than combinations of stand-alone systems. But it's not easy - for a distributed system to be useful, it must be reliable. This is a difficult goal to achieve because of the complexity of the interactions between simultaneously running components. A distributed system must have the following characteristics: * Fault-Tolerant: It can recover from component failures without performing incorrect actions. * Highly Available: It can restore operations, permitting it to resume providing services even when some components have failed. * Recoverable: Failed components can restart themselves and rejoin the system, after the cause of failure has been repaired. * Consistent: The system can coordinate actions by multiple components often in the presence of concurrency and failure. This underlies the ability of a distributed system to act like a non-distributed system. * Scalable: It can operate correctly even as some aspect of the system is scaled to a larger size. For example, we might increase the size of the network on which the system is running. This increases the frequency of network outages and could degrade a "non-scalable" system. Similarly, we might increase the number of users or servers, or overall load on the system. In a scalable system, this should not have a significant effect. * Predictable Performance: The ability to provide desired responsiveness in a timely manner. * Secure: The system authenticates access to data and services
These are high standards, which are challenging to achieve. Probably
Phyllis Lenoir
POS/355
November 19, 2012
Asho Rao
A distributed system is an application that executes a collection of protocols to coordinate the actions of multiple processes on a network, where all component work together to perform a single set of related tasks. A distributed system can be much larger and more powerful given the combined capabilities of the distributed components, than combinations of stand-alone systems. But it's not easy - for a distributed system to be useful, it must be reliable. This is a difficult goal to achieve because of the complexity of the interactions between simultaneously running components. A distributed system must have the following characteristics: * Fault-Tolerant: It can recover from component failures without performing incorrect actions. * Highly Available: It can restore operations, permitting it to resume providing services even when some components have failed. * Recoverable: Failed components can restart themselves and rejoin the system, after the cause of failure has been repaired. * Consistent: The system can coordinate actions by multiple components often in the presence of concurrency and failure. This underlies the ability of a distributed system to act like a non-distributed system. * Scalable: It can operate correctly even as some aspect of the system is scaled to a larger size. For example, we might increase the size of the network on which the system is running. This increases the frequency of network outages and could degrade a "non-scalable" system. Similarly, we might increase the number of users or servers, or overall load on the system. In a scalable system, this should not have a significant effect. * Predictable Performance: The ability to provide desired responsiveness in a timely manner. * Secure: The system authenticates access to data and services
These are high standards, which are challenging to achieve. Probably
References: Introduction to Distributed Systems Design. Retrieved from: http://www.code.google.com/ edu/parallel/dsd-tutorial.html Concurrent Reading. Retrieved from http://www.s.uiowa.edu/...