Microreboot
Encyclopedia
Microrebooting is a technique used to recover from failures in crash-only software
systems. Instead of rebooting
the whole system, only subsets of fine-grain components are restarted. The granularity of components is typically finer than the process level (e.g., EJB-level in Java EE systems).
The goal of confining the reboot to fine-grain components is threefold: to reduce the amount of time it takes for the system to return to service, to minimize the failure's disruption to the system and its users, and to preserve as much in-memory application data as possible.
The concept was proposed by George Candea while he was a graduate student at Stanford University
in 2001. It was reduced to practice in systems such as a satellite ground station control system and a Java EE application server
.
Crash-only software
Crash-only software refers to computer programs that handle failures by simply restarting, without attempting any sophisticated recovery. Correctly written components of crash-only software can microreboot to a known-good state without the help of a user...
systems. Instead of rebooting
Booting
In computing, booting is a process that begins when a user turns on a computer system and prepares the computer to perform its normal operations. On modern computers, this typically involves loading and starting an operating system. The boot sequence is the initial set of operations that the...
the whole system, only subsets of fine-grain components are restarted. The granularity of components is typically finer than the process level (e.g., EJB-level in Java EE systems).
The goal of confining the reboot to fine-grain components is threefold: to reduce the amount of time it takes for the system to return to service, to minimize the failure's disruption to the system and its users, and to preserve as much in-memory application data as possible.
The concept was proposed by George Candea while he was a graduate student at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
in 2001. It was reduced to practice in systems such as a satellite ground station control system and a Java EE application server
Application server
An application server is a software framework that provides an environment in which applications can run, no matter what the applications are or what they do...
.
External links
- http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/candea01recursive.html
- http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/candea02reducing.html
- http://www.cs.stanford.edu/~candea/papers/microreboot/