From: Zooko O'Whielacronx Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 19:34:09 +0000 (-0700) Subject: doc: edit the explanation of K-of-N tradeoffs X-Git-Url: https://git.rkrishnan.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=035dbcaddede6ca7f6419c3afdf23fe71a3e1413;p=tahoe-lafs%2Ftahoe-lafs.git doc: edit the explanation of K-of-N tradeoffs --- diff --git a/docs/configuration.rst b/docs/configuration.rst index ab1d1fda..72f38118 100644 --- a/docs/configuration.rst +++ b/docs/configuration.rst @@ -76,8 +76,8 @@ set the ``tub.location`` option described below. ``web.port = (strports string, optional)`` This controls where the node's webserver should listen, providing - filesystem access and node status as defined in `webapi.rst - `_. This file contains a Twisted "strports" + filesystem access and node status as defined in + ``_. This file contains a Twisted "strports" specification such as "``3456``" or "``tcp:3456:interface=127.0.0.1``". The "``tahoe create-node``" or "``tahoe create-client``" commands set the ``web.port`` to "``tcp:3456:interface=127.0.0.1``" by default; this is @@ -296,36 +296,29 @@ Client Configuration These three values set the default encoding parameters. Each time a new file is uploaded, erasure-coding is used to break the ciphertext into - separate pieces. There will be ``N`` (i.e. ``shares.total``) pieces + separate shares. There will be ``N`` (i.e. ``shares.total``) shares created, and the file will be recoverable if any ``k`` - (i.e. ``shares.needed``) pieces are retrieved. The default values are + (i.e. ``shares.needed``) shares are retrieved. The default values are 3-of-10 (i.e. ``shares.needed = 3``, ``shares.total = 10``). Setting ``k`` to 1 is equivalent to simple replication (uploading ``N`` copies of the file). - These values control the tradeoff between storage overhead, performance, - and reliability. To a first approximation, a 1MB file will use (1MB * + These values control the tradeoff between storage overhead and + reliability. To a first approximation, a 1MB file will use (1MB * ``N``/``k``) of backend storage space (the actual value will be a bit more, because of other forms of overhead). Up to ``N``-``k`` shares can - be lost before the file becomes unrecoverable, so assuming there are at - least ``N`` servers, up to ``N``-``k`` servers can be offline without - losing the file. So large ``N``/``k`` ratios are more reliable, and small - ``N``/``k`` ratios use less disk space. Clearly, ``k`` must never be - greater than ``N``. - - Large values of ``N`` will slow down upload operations slightly, since - more servers must be involved, and will slightly increase storage - overhead due to the hash trees that are created. Large values of ``k`` - will cause downloads to be marginally slower, because more servers must - be involved. ``N`` cannot be larger than 256, because of the 8-bit - erasure-coding algorithm that Tahoe-LAFS uses. - - ``shares.happy`` allows you control over the distribution of your - immutable file. For a successful upload, shares are guaranteed to be - initially placed on at least ``shares.happy`` distinct servers, the - correct functioning of any ``k`` of which is sufficient to guarantee the - availability of the uploaded file. This value should not be larger than - the number of servers on your grid. + be lost before the file becomes unrecoverable. So large ``N``/``k`` + ratios are more reliable, and small ``N``/``k`` ratios use less disk + space. ``N`` cannot be larger than 256, because of the 8-bit + erasure-coding algorithm that Tahoe-LAFS uses. ``k`` can not be greater + than ``N``. See ``_ for more details. + + ``shares.happy`` allows you control over how well to "spread out" the + shares of an immutable file. For a successful upload, shares are + guaranteed to be initially placed on at least ``shares.happy`` distinct + servers, the correct functioning of any ``k`` of which is sufficient to + guarantee the availability of the uploaded file. This value should not be + larger than the number of servers on your grid. A value of ``shares.happy`` <= ``k`` is allowed, but does not provide any redundancy if some servers fail or lose shares.