REPLICATION.md

Replication

Replication is a key feature of the SoS, ensuring that uploaded objects are copied sufficiently many times that data-loss should be unlikely.

Replication is implemented in terms of groups, which are defined in the configuration file /etc/sos.conf, or ~/.sos.conf. A sample configuration would look like this:

#
# This configuration file defines three groups.
#
# Lines prefixed with "#" are comments, and are ignored.
#
[1]
-: http://node1.example.com:3000
-: http://node1-2.example.com:3000
-: http://node1-3.example.com:3000
[2]
-: http://node2.example.com:3000
-: http://node2-2.example.com:3000
-: http://node2-3.example.com:3000
[3]
-: http://node3.example.com:3000
-: http://node3-2.example.com:3000
-: http://node3-3.example.com:3000

Replication is carried out exclusively between members of the same group, so in the first group above we have this:

• Data from http://node1.example.com:3000 is replicated
  • To http://node1-2.example.com:3000.
  • To http://node1-3.example.com:3000.
• Data from http://node1-2.example.com:3000 is replicated
  • To http://node1.example.com:3000.
  • To http://node1-3.example.com:3000.
• Data from http://node1-3.example.com:3000 is replicated
  • To http://node1.example.com:3000.
  • To http://node1-3.example.com:3000.

Similarly the second-group replicate between themselves, and the third-group replicats between the members in that group.

There is zero replication between nodes in different groups.

If you wish to have two copies of all uploaded objects then you need to define each group with two members:

[1]
-: http://node1.example.com:3000
-: http://mirror1.example.com:3000
[2]
-: http://node2.example.com:3000
-: http://mirror2.example.com:3000
[3]
-: http://node3.example.com:3000
-: http://mirror3.example.com:3000

If you wish to have five replicas of all uploaded objects the principle is the same:

[1]
-: http://node1.example.com:3000
-: http://mirror1.example.com:3000
-: http://mirror2.example.com:3000
-: http://mirror3.example.com:3000
-: http://mirror4.example.com:3000
[2]
-: http://node2.example.com:3000
-: http://mirror5.example.com:3000
-: http://mirror6.example.com:3000
-: http://mirror7.example.com:3000
-: http://mirror8.example.com:3000

Triggering Replication

Replication is not triggered automatically, although in the future that is an ideal enhancement. To trigger replication you must run the replication sub-command manually, and regularly:

$ sos replicate [-verbose]