A Conceptual Framework for System Fault Tolerance
February 1992 • Technical Report
Walter Heimerdinger (Honeywell), Charles B. Weinstock
This document provides vocabulary, discusses system failure, describes mechanisms for making systems fault tolerant, and provides rules for developing fault-tolerant systems.
Publisher:
Software Engineering Institute
CMU/SEI Report Number
CMU/SEI-92-TR-033
Subjects
Abstract
A major problem in transitioning fault tolerance practices to the practitioner community is a lack of a common view of what fault tolerance is and how it can help in the design of reliable computer systems. This document takes a step towards making fault tolerance more understandable by proposing a conceptual framework. The framework provides a consistent vocabulary for fault-tolerance concepts, discusses how systems fail, describes commonly used mechanisms for making systems fault tolerant, and provides some rules for developing fault-tolerant systems.