Maintaining node consistency in the face of dynamic change

Abstract

With the increasing demand for long running and highly available distributed services, interest in systems which can undergo dynamic reconfiguration has risen. However for dynamic change to yield valid systems, change actions must be carried out such that the consistency of the software modules making up the system is not breached. This can be ensured if the subset of the system which is to undergo change is in a state amenable to reconfiguration. This paper presents an algorithm which imposes a safe state over the part of the system undergoing change. The algorithm suits a particular class of transactional systems and places special emphasis on minimising the interference to the rest of the system and reducing the programmer contribution necessary for achieving this safe state.