Tango: Distributed Data Structures Over a Shared Log

webinar

Author(s)/Presenter(s):

Mahesh Balakrishnan

Library Content Type

Presentation

Library Release Date

Focus Areas

Abstract

We argue that highly available, strongly consistent distributed systems can be realized via a simple storage abstraction: the shared log. In this talk, we describe Tango objects, a new class of replicated, in-memory data structures (maps, lists, queues, etc.) backed by a shared log. Replicas of a Tango object are synchronized via simple append and read operations on the shared log instead of complex distributed protocols. The shared log is the source of durability and consensus in the system, subsuming the role of protocols such as Paxos. In addition, it enables ACID transactions across multiple Tango objects. Distributed systems such as ZooKeeper and BookKeeper can be replaced by Tango objects comprising a few hundred lines of code. In turn, these Tango objects are used to harden the meta-data components of larger systems (e.g., the HDFS name-node).