From: amber Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:57:19 +0000 (-0700) Subject: docs: 10 blocks by default, not 12 X-Git-Tag: allmydata-tahoe-0.8.0~75 X-Git-Url: https://git.rkrishnan.org/components/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=0a01fd405bd527bfcdf645ea29406318793bb92b;p=tahoe-lafs%2Ftahoe-lafs.git docs: 10 blocks by default, not 12 --- diff --git a/docs/about.html b/docs/about.html index 89dcb9ad..dbd3e59a 100644 --- a/docs/about.html +++ b/docs/about.html @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@

Overview

A "storage grid" is made up of a number of storage servers. A storage server has local attached storage (typically one or more SATA hard disks). A "gateway" uses the storage servers and provides to its clients a filesystem over a standard protocol such as HTTP(S), FUSE, or SMB.

Users do not rely on storage servers to provide confidentiality nor integrity for the data -- instead all of the data is encrypted and integrity-checked by the gateway, so that the servers can neither read nor alter the contents of the files.

-

Users do rely on storage servers for availability. The ciphertext is erasure-coded and distributed across N storage servers (the default value for N is 12) so that it can be recovered from any K of these servers (the default value of K is 3). Therefore only the simultaneous failure of N-K+1 (with the defaults, 10) servers can make the data unavailable. Phrasing this in terms of reliance, we say that the users rely on the gateway for the confidentiality and integrity of the data, and on any 3 of the 12 servers for the availability of the data.

+

Users do rely on storage servers for availability. The ciphertext is erasure-coded and distributed across N storage servers (the default value for N is 12) so that it can be recovered from any K of these servers (the default value of K is 3). Therefore only the simultaneous failure of N-K+1 (with the defaults, 10) servers can make the data unavailable. Phrasing this in terms of reliance, we say that the users rely on the gateway for the confidentiality and integrity of the data, and on any 3 of the 10 servers for the availability of the data.

In the typical deployment mode each user runs her own gateway on her own machine. This way she need rely only on her own machine for the confidentiality and integrity of the data, and she can take advantage of filesystem integration using FUSE or SMB.

An alternate deployment mode is that the gateway runs on a remote machine and the user connects to it over HTTPS. This means that the operator of the gateway can view and modify the user's data (the user relies on the gateway for confidentiality and integrity), but the user can access the filesystem with a client that doesn't have the gateway software installed, such as an Internet kiosk or cell phone.

A user who has read-write access to a file or directory in this filesystem can give another user read-write access to that file or directory, or read-only access to that file or directory. A user who has read-only access to a file or directory can give another user read-only access to it.

diff --git a/docs/architecture.txt b/docs/architecture.txt index 826b10d8..2ee46e7b 100644 --- a/docs/architecture.txt +++ b/docs/architecture.txt @@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ secure remote message passing library. Each peer offers certain services to the others. The primary service is that of the storage server, which holds data in the form of "shares". Shares are encoded pieces of files. There are a -configurable number of shares for each file, 12 by default. Normally, +configurable number of shares for each file, 10 by default. Normally, each share is stored on a separate server, but a single server can hold multiple shares for a single file. @@ -62,9 +62,9 @@ example the lag between hitting "play" and a movie actually starting. The peer then erasure-codes each segment, producing blocks such that only a subset of them are needed to reconstruct the segment (by -default 3 out of 12 of the blocks). It sends one block from each +default 3 out of 10 of the blocks). It sends one block from each segment to a given server. The set of blocks on a given server -constitutes a "share". Only a subset of the shares (3 out of 12) are +constitutes a "share". Only a subset of the shares (3 out of 10) are needed to reconstruct the file. A tagged hash of the encryption key is used to form the "storage