Trustworthy Systems

Hibernator — checkpoint/restart for Unix

Authors

Chris Maltby and Peter Chubb

Softway Pty Ltd

Abstract

The emergence of Unix based workstation networks has rekindled the need for a comprehensive checkpoint/restart system as a means for balancing loads on network component machines. Making a valid checkpoint on a Unix system has a lot of challenges for the developer, as state information is scattered in many places, including the inside of pipes. Even defining what constitutes a `job' is problematic.

This talk will describe some of the more interesting challenges we encountered in developing Softway's Hibernator technology, and give an overview of the related standards and alternatives. The talk will also discuss some possible ways Hibernator can interact with existing application environments and system management tools.

BibTeX Entry

  @inproceedings{Maltby_Chubb_95,
    address          = {Sydney, Australia},
    author           = {Chris Maltby and Peter Chubb},
    booktitle        = {AUUG '95 and Asia Pacific WWW conference '95},
    editor           = {Philip Tsang},
    month            = sep,
    pages            = {184--190},
    paperUrl         = {https://trustworthy.systems/publications/papers/Maltby_Chubb_95.pdf},
    title            = {{Hibernator} --- Checkpoint/Restart for {Unix}},
    year             = {1995}
  }

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