An Archival System for Tolerating High Degrees of File Server Failure

Typhoon is a backup/archival system that is designed to increase the availability of data by allowing file servers to distribute archival copies of files across an arbitrary set of servers. The system uses linear-time erasure codes as a means to recreate data in the event that one or more servers fail. The implementation that is described can tolerate failure rates that approach 50% while only using an aggregate amount of disk space that is comparable to a conventional file mirroring system. As a result, files will still be available in the event of server failures, provided that a sufficient amount of the data network is still functioning.