Crash Recovery in a Distributed Data Storage System

The work

AuthorsButler W. Lampson; Howard E. Sturgis
Editors
Typeunpublished
Year1979
Citekeylampson1979crash

Where it appeared

PublisherXerox Palo Alto Research Center

Access

Landing pagehttps://web.archive.org/web/2018/http://www.bwlampson.site/21-CrashRecovery/Acrobat.pdf

Settled

ContainerAn unpublished working paper is not inside a container. Saltzer's reference 10 says 'Submitted for publication' and no journal or proceedings ever carried it; the issuing body is recorded as the publisher, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, in the same form as kahng1963electric records the patent office. Volume, issue and pages are empty for the same reason -- the document is self-paginated 1 to 28 with no host to take an extent from.
PagesSelf-paginated 1 to 28 with no host publication to take an extent from; see the reason on container.

Abstract

An algorithm is described which guarantees reliable storage of data in a distributed system, even when different portions of the data base, stored on separate machines, are updated as part of a single transaction. The algorithm is implemented by a hierarchy of rather simple abstractions, and it works properly regardless of crashes of the client or servers. Some care is taken to state precisely the assumptions about the physical components of the system (storage, processors and communication).

A copy is held

pdf, 117.4 kB. Not published — it may be under copyright. The facts and links here are.

How it got here

How it got hereagent via bibtex
Added2026-09-03 01:47 UTC
Approved bya person 2026-09-03 09:39 UTC

Filed under

lampson who-carries-the-guarantee

Cite it as

@unpublished{lampson1979crash,
  title        = {Crash Recovery in a Distributed Data Storage System},
  author       = {Butler W. Lampson and Howard E. Sturgis},
  year         = {1979},
  publisher    = {Xerox Palo Alto Research Center},
}

This record lives at https://refs.drheap.org/lampson1979crash/ and will keep doing so.