Misconfiguration prevention and error cause detection for distributed-cloud applications

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ranković, Tamara, Šiljić, Filip, Tomić, Jovan, Sladić, Goran, Simić, Miloš
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Ranković, Tamara
Šiljić, Filip
Tomić, Jovan
Sladić, Goran
Simić, Miloš
author_facet Ranković, Tamara
Šiljić, Filip
Tomić, Jovan
Sladić, Goran
Simić, Miloš
contents Major software failures are reported to be due to misconfiguration. As manual configuration is too error-prone to be deemed a reliable strategy for dynamic and complex systems, automated configuration management has become a standard. Countermeasures against misconfiguration can be focused on prevention or, if failure already occurred, detection. Configuration is often used as a broad term for any set of parameters or system states that dictate how an application will behave, but in this paper, we only focus on parameters consumed on process startup, usually from configuration files. Our objective is to enhance configuration management processes in environments based on the distributed cloud model, a novel cloud model that allows dynamic allocation of strategically located resources. The two mechanisms we propose are configuration validation using schemas and configuration version control with support for detecting differences between configuration versions. Our solution reduces the risk of incorrect configuration as schemas prevent any non-compliant configuration from reaching applications. However, if failure still occurs because the schema was incomplete or a valid configuration revealed existing software bugs, the version control system can precisely locate configuration changes that triggered the failure.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_20273
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Misconfiguration prevention and error cause detection for distributed-cloud applications
Ranković, Tamara
Šiljić, Filip
Tomić, Jovan
Sladić, Goran
Simić, Miloš
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Major software failures are reported to be due to misconfiguration. As manual configuration is too error-prone to be deemed a reliable strategy for dynamic and complex systems, automated configuration management has become a standard. Countermeasures against misconfiguration can be focused on prevention or, if failure already occurred, detection. Configuration is often used as a broad term for any set of parameters or system states that dictate how an application will behave, but in this paper, we only focus on parameters consumed on process startup, usually from configuration files. Our objective is to enhance configuration management processes in environments based on the distributed cloud model, a novel cloud model that allows dynamic allocation of strategically located resources. The two mechanisms we propose are configuration validation using schemas and configuration version control with support for detecting differences between configuration versions. Our solution reduces the risk of incorrect configuration as schemas prevent any non-compliant configuration from reaching applications. However, if failure still occurs because the schema was incomplete or a valid configuration revealed existing software bugs, the version control system can precisely locate configuration changes that triggered the failure.
title Misconfiguration prevention and error cause detection for distributed-cloud applications
topic Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.20273