Replication under scalable hashing: a family of algorithms for scalable decentralized data distribution

Summary form only given. Typical algorithms for decentralized data distribution work best in a system that is fully built before it first used; adding or removing components results in either extensive reorganization of data or load imbalance in the system. We have developed a family of decentralized algorithms, RUSH (replication under scalable hashing), that maps replicated objects to a scalable collection of storage servers or disks. RUSH algorithms distribute objects to servers according to user-specified server weighting. While all RUSH variants support addition of servers to the system, different variants have different characteristics with respect to lookup time in petabyte-scale systems, performance with mirroring (as opposed to redundancy codes), and storage server removal. All RUSH variants redistribute as few objects as possible when new servers are added or existing servers are removed, and all variants guarantee that no two replicas of a particular object are ever placed on the same server. Because there is no central directory, clients can compute data locations in parallel, allowing thousands of clients to access objects on thousands of servers simultaneously.