Spheres of Undo: A Framework for Extending Undo Aaron Brown January 2004 ROC Retreat

Slide 2 Motivation: Why Spheres of Undo? Provide conceptual model to help explain ROC Undo concepts – time travel – paradoxes – boundaries Develop framework for extending Undo to more complex systems – nested undo: undo for desktops, shared servers – distributed undo: undo for distributed systems

Slide 3 Sphere of Undo What is a Sphere of Undo (SoU)? SoU: a “bubble” of state & time – isolated from external world – defines boundaries of undo operation Example: productivity application In-memory document Productivity Application end user disk save external observer

Slide 4 ROC Undo as Spheres of Undo Challenge: end-users now outside boundary Sphere of Undo Service Application state operator end users timeline ROC Undo == system-wide undo for services – entire service is now enclosed in sphere of undo

Slide 5 The Problem of Paradoxes Operator’s undo can cause externally-visible temporal inconsistencies: paradoxes – sphere of undo establishes paradox boundary Sphere of Undo Service Application state undo t=3 end user 3 t t operator Paradox!

Slide 6 Addressing Paradoxes: Nested SoUs Add replay of end-user updates via an additional sphere of undo – restores end-user state when operator commits undo But end users can still see inconsistencies! Application Service user state system state operator end users Outer sphere provides undo only (all state) Inner sphere provides undo & redo (user state)

Slide 7 Coping with Remaining Paradoxes In general, impossible to make transparent Solution: identify paradoxes and compensate – via framework for detecting, explaining inconsistency – works for services with human users Sphere of Undo defines points needing paradox management – wherever information flows out across SoU boundary – whenever state outside SoU is altered

Slide 8 Outline Motivation Spheres of Undo Modeling Today’s ROC Undo Extending Undo: Hierarchical Services Extending Undo: Distributed Services Wrapup

Slide 9 Undo for Hierarchical Services ROC Undo only works for monolithic services – all service state in one sphere of undo – entire service time-travels as a unit Can we extend it to hierarchical services? – multiple-granularity undo in » per-user undo as well as whole-system undo – ASP with shared machines » undo of each share plus whole-machine undo – desktop system » undo of app config, system config, or entire system

Slide 10 Nested Spheres of Undo SoUs nest according to state hierarchy: ASP user1 mail userN mail... Service SoU users App. service 1... App. service N ASP Service SoU OS State Service 1 users Service N users user’s SoU

Slide 11 Nested SoUs: Composition Model Pre-Undo Post-Undo Self-contained Service (single sphere of undo) Nested spheres of undo S1S1 S1S1 c S1S1 S2S2 S2S2 S1S1 S2S2 S 1 undoes S 2 undoes S1S1 S2S2 c S1S1 S2S2 S1S1 Key: timeline current time compensation c

Slide 12 Nesting Undo Models Each nest can use a different undo model – we saw this before with paradox management: Application Service user state system state operator end users Outer sphere provides undo only (all state) Inner sphere provides undo & redo (user state)

Slide 13 Example of Nesting Undo Models: Desktop Environment Desktop Application docu- ments P OS bins; low-level state Application’s config. tool P app cfg state Software installer Platform’s cfg. tool platform cfg. state P User app. config. changes document edits platform config. changes software installs untracked changes OS upgrades

Slide 14 Implementing Nested SoUs Foundation: nested rewindable storage layer – independent rollback of substate Multiple proxy points for verb generation – record user actions at multiple levels New APIs for inner spheres of undo – invoke, commit, cancel nested undo Minor changes to verb log structure – maintain tentative verb log during replay; install on commit

Slide 15 Outline Motivation Spheres of Undo Modeling Today’s ROC Undo Extending Undo: Hierarchical Services Extending Undo: Distributed Services Wrapup

Slide 16 Undo for Distributed Services Goal: allow unilateral undo of one service in a network of cooperating services Challenge: paradoxes between spheres Credit-card Service state Fulfillment Service state Shopping Service state end users Authorization Orders Charges E-Shopping Example

Slide 17 Paradoxes and Distributed Undo Two choices for handling paradoxes – coordinated spheres: propagate undo from paradox producer to paradox consumer S1S1 S1S1 S2S2 S2S2 S1S1 S1S1 S2S2 S2S2 c c S1S1 S1S1 S2S2 S2S2 S1S1 S1S1 S2S2 S2S2 – uncoordinated spheres: paradox producer invokes compensation on consumer Undo of S 1 Undo of S 1 c cc

Slide 18 Implementing Distributed Undo SoUs provide undo for each subservice & define paradox management points Coordination of SoUs is likely complex – separation of input and output verbs – correlation of requests across spheres of undo – epoch-based log architecture with paradox detection across epochs – challenges with non-request-response comm. patterns We have tentative algorithms & APIs – but definitely a fertile area for future study

Slide 19 Outline Motivation Spheres of Undo Modeling Today’s ROC Undo Extending Undo: Hierarchical Services Extending Undo: Distributed Services Wrapup

Slide 20 Wrapup Spheres of Undo provide a foundation for understanding and extending undo – define boundaries of state and time – identify paradox management points – suggest hierarchical and distributed extensions » first step in undo for desktops and distributed services Fertile area for future study and implementation work!

Spheres of Undo: A Framework for Extending Undo For more info: – – dissertation: A. Brown. “A Recovery-Oriented Approach to Dependable Services: Repairing Past Errors with System-Wide Undo.” UCB Technical Report UCB//CSD-04-XXXX – tech report on distributed undo: A. Brown. “Toward System-Wide Undo for Distributed Services.” UCB Technical Report UCB//CSD

Backup Slides

Slide 23 Output Paradoxes & Distributed Undo Output verbs needed to detect scenarios like: Original Execution A B C rArA rBrB out C After coordinated Undo of A & B A B C rArA r' B out C out' C P ARADOX !

Slide 24 J2EE PetStore as Spheres of Undo Storefront Service Management Service Order-processing Service Supplier 1Supplier N end users manager... confirmations orders (async) queries, order approval/rejection (sync) orders (async) inventory updates (sync)