Faults and Failures

Types of Faults

Transient
Occurs only once and then goes away
Intermittent
Irregular, comes and goes
Permanent
Occurs only once and then goes away. Continues to exist (until repair)

Propagation

Fault
the cause of an error
Error
part of a system’s state that may lead to a failure
Failure
a system does not operate according to its specifications
  • Faults lead to errors, errors lead to failures.

Types of Failures

Crash failure
A server halts, but is working correctly until it halts
Omission failure
A server fails to respond to incoming requests, fails to receive incoming messages or fails to send messages
Timing failure
A server’s response lies outside the specified time interval
Response failure
The server’s response is incorrect, value of the response is wrong, or server deviates from the correct flow of control
Arbitrary (Byzantine) Failure
A server may produce arbitrary responses at arbitrary times

(k)-Fault-Tolerance

Fail-Silent

[ n=k+1 ] Replica produces either correct responses or no response at all.

Fail-Consistent

[ n=2k+1 ] Replica produces either only correct or only faulty responses

Byzantine

[ n=3k+1 ] Replica inconsistently produces correct or faulty responses


2023-10-22