An experimental evaluation of correlated network partitions in the Coda distributed file system

TitleAn experimental evaluation of correlated network partitions in the Coda distributed file system
Publication TypeConference Papers
Year of Publication2003
AuthorsLefever RM, Cukier M, Sanders WH
Date Published2003/10//
Keywordsclient-server systems, Coda distributed file system, correlated network partitions, distributed file systems, experimental evaluation, fault model, Loki fault injector, multiple correlated failures, network failure, Network topology, performance evaluation, replicated data, replicated databases, software fault tolerance, system performance evaluation
Abstract

Experimental evaluation is an important way to assess distributed systems, and fault injection is the dominant technique in this area for the evaluation of a system's dependability. For distributed systems, network failure is an important fault model. Physical network failures often have far-reaching effects, giving rise to multiple correlated failures as seen by higher-level protocols. This paper presents an experimental evaluation, using the Loki fault injector, which provides insight into the impact that correlated network partitions have on the Coda distributed file system. In this evaluation, Loki created a network partition between two Coda file servers, during which updates were made at each server to the same replicated data volume. Upon repair of the partition, a client requested directory resolution to converge the diverging replicas. At various stages of the resolution, Loki invoked a second correlated network partition, thus allowing us to evaluate its impact on the system's correctness, performance, and availability.

DOI10.1109/RELDIS.2003.1238077