text: Bizur is a consensus algorithm exposing a key-value interface. It is used by a distributed file-system that scales to 100s of servers, delivering millions of IOPS, both data and metadata, with consistent low-latency. Bizur is aimed for services that require strongly consistent state, but do not require a distributed log; for example, a distributed lock manager or a distributed service locator. By avoiding a distributed log scheme, Bizur outperforms distributed log based consensus algorithms, producing more IOPS and guaranteeing lower latencies during normal operation and especially during failures. Paxos-like algorithms (e.g., Zab and Raft) which are used by existing distributed file-systems, can have artificial contention points due to their dependence on a distributed log. The distributed log is needed when replicating a general service, but when the desired service is key-value based, the contention points created by the distributed log can be avoided. Bizur does exactly that, by reaching consensus independently on independent keys. This independence allows Bizur to handle failures more efficiently and to scale much better than other consensus algorithms, allowing the file-system that utilizes Bizur to scale with it.
  @cite_35: Zab is a crash-recovery atomic broadcast algorithm we designed for the ZooKeeper coordination service. ZooKeeper implements a primary-backup scheme in which a primary process executes clients operations and uses Zab to propagate the corresponding incremental state changes to backup processes1. Due the dependence of an incremental state change on the sequence of changes previously generated, Zab must guarantee that if it delivers a given state change, then all other changes it depends upon must be delivered first. Since primaries may crash, Zab must satisfy this requirement despite crashes of primaries.
  @cite_22: In this paper, we describe ZooKeeper, a service for coordinating processes of distributed applications. Since ZooKeeper is part of critical infrastructure, ZooKeeper aims to provide a simple and high performance kernel for building more complex coordination primitives at the client. It incorporates elements from group messaging, shared registers, and distributed lock services in a replicated, centralized service. The interface exposed by Zoo-Keeper has the wait-free aspects of shared registers with an event-driven mechanism similar to cache invalidations of distributed file systems to provide a simple, yet powerful coordination service. The ZooKeeper interface enables a high-performance service implementation. In addition to the wait-free property, ZooKeeper provides a per client guarantee of FIFO execution of requests and linearizability for all requests that change the ZooKeeper state. These design decisions enable the implementation of a high performance processing pipeline with read requests being satisfied by local servers. We show for the target workloads, 2:1 to 100:1 read to write ratio, that ZooKeeper can handle tens to hundreds of thousands of transactions per second. This performance allows ZooKeeper to be used extensively by client applications.
  @cite_32: Raft is a consensus algorithm for managing a replicated log. It produces a result equivalent to (multi-)Paxos, and it is as efficient as Paxos, but its structure is different from Paxos; this makes Raft more understandable than Paxos and also provides a better foundation for building practical systems. In order to enhance understandability, Raft separates the key elements of consensus, such as leader election, log replication, and safety, and it enforces a stronger degree of coherency to reduce the number of states that must be considered. Results from a user study demonstrate that Raft is easier for students to learn than Paxos. Raft also includes a new mechanism for changing the cluster membership, which uses overlapping majorities to guarantee safety.
  @cite_3: 
  @cite_25: This paper presents an updated version of Viewstamped Replication, a replication technique that handles failures in which nodes crash. It describes how client requests are handled, how the group reorganizes when a replica fails, and how a failed replica is able to rejoin the group. The paper also describes a number of important optimizations and presents a protocol for handling reconfigurations that can change both the group membership and the number of failures the group is able to handle.
summary: Multiple algorithms fall in the SMR category: the original Paxos @cite_3 , ZooKeeper's @cite_22 consensus algorithm Zab @cite_35 , Raft @cite_32 which aims to simplify Paxos, and Viewstamp replication @cite_25 .