Online Reconfiguration in Replicated Databases Based on Group Communication
DSN '01 Proceedings of the 2001 International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (formerly: FTCS)
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Use of group communication to support replication in database systems has proven to be an attractive alternative to traditional replica control schemes. And various replica control protocols have been developed that use the ordering and reliability semantics of group communication primitives to simplify database system design and to improve performance. Although current solutions are able to mask site failures effectively, they are unable to cope with recovery of failed sites, merging of partitions, or joining of new sites. This paper addresses this important issue and proposes efficient solutions for online system reconfiguration providing new sites with a current state of the database without interrupting transaction processing in the rest of the system. We present various alternatives that can match the needs of different operating environments. We analyze the implications of long and complex reconfigurations on applications such as replicated databases, and argue that their development may be greatly simplified by extended forms of group communication.