Model driven configuration of fault tolerance solutions for component-based software system

Abstract

Fault tolerance is very important for complex component-based software systems, but its configuration is complicated and challenging. In this paper, we propose a model driven approach to semi-automatic configuration of fault tolerance solutions. At design time, a set of reusable fault tolerance solutions are modeled as architecture styles, with the key properties verified by model checking. At runtime, the runtime software architecture of the target system is automatically constructed by the code generated from the given architectural meta-model. Then, the impact of each component on the system reliability is automatically analyzed to recommend which components should be considered in the fault tolerance configuration. Finally, after which components are guaranteed by what fault tolerance solution is decided by the system administration, the architecture model is automatically changed by merging with the selected fault tolerance styles and finally, these changes are automatically propagated to the target system. This approach is evaluated on Java enterprise systems. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.