Using application specific knowledge for configuring object replicas

Abstract

I n distributed systems, object replication is used 10 improve the availabili8 and performance of a plications in the presence of failures. hen determining the con{ uration of a replicated object (i.e., number and location of replicas? a number of often conflicting factors need to be considered, e.g., the availability and performance requirements of the object. However, a plication specific knowledge about the objects, such as any inter-&pendencies, is typically not accounted for. In man applications this in ormation can a ect an typically ive users only basic control over the configuration o a re licas. Expressing application s ecific knowledge is not possible.d have designed and iinplementec?a replication sub-system allowing ap lications to control these aspects of replication. This system al&ws the elfficient replication of an arbitrary number of objects with. arbitrary interdependencies.