Implementation of Sender Based Message Logging

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Implementation of Sender Based Message Logging

• Ajith Alexander
• Nikhil Pandit

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Our Goals and Learning Objectives

• Implement and evaluate the Sender Based Message
  Logging1 algorithm described in the paper
• Understand the practical issues involved in
  implementing a checkpointing and recovery
  framework
• Analyze data obtained from this implementation to
  draw conclusions about how Sender Based Message
  Logging compares to alternative recovery
  protocols2

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Motivation for Project

• The paper proposes a recovery strategy without
  providing sufficient details for an actual
  implementation
• Implementing the algorithm can serve to identify
  its nuances
• This project also allows us to examine the
  practicality of deploying an implementation of
  the algorithm

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Sender Based Message Logging

• Low overhead mechanism for providing transparent
  fault-tolerance in distributed systems
• Messages are logged in volatile memory on the
  machine from which it is sent
• Details of the algorithm that need to be defined
  include
• Efficient data structures for logging
• Optimal checkpointing frequency
• Step by step recovery protocol

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Current Status

• Database to handle introduction, checkpointing
  and logging by nodes
• Basic code to allow nodes to connect to the
  distributed system and communicate with each
  other
• API that allows an application to send messages
  and receive messages using our distributed
  middleware

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Implementation and Timeline

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Work division
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Deliverables

• Source code for distributed system that
  implements sender-based message logging and
  recovery with message transmission API for easy
  use by any validation application
• Basic test application to demonstrate working of
  the implementation
• Final report describing design decisions and
  insights into comparative merits of sender-based
  message logging over other recovery protocols

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References

• Johnson, D. B. and Zwaenepoel, W. 1987.
  Sender-based message logging. In Digest of
  Papers, FTCS-17, The Seventeenth Annual
  International Symposium on Fault-Tolerant
  Computing, 14--19.
• E. N. Elnozahy, W. Zwaenepoel, On the Use and
  Implementation of Message Logging