hashicorp / hashicorp/memberlist
memberlist fails in large-scale clusters
- Dominant language
- Go
- Stars
- 4.1k
- Forks
- 478
- Avg merge
- 15h 58m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 3
Description
We recently implemented a large scale improved gossip protocol based on memberlist. memberlist did not meet our expectations when the number of nodes reached 1000. After investigation, it is found that the broadcast mechanism takes data from the system broadcast queue first(function `getBraodcasts` in broadcast.go). If the number of nodes is too large, the UDP packet does not have enough space to store the data in the user-defined broadcast queue, which leads to our failure to achieve system consistency.
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start in broadcast.go at getBraodcasts and trace how system and user-defined broadcast queues are selected when UDP packet space is limited. Reproduce the behavior with a cluster near 1000 nodes and inspect how the broadcast path handles packet capacity. Done means the large-cluster broadcast mechanism no longer prevents system consistency.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- go
- Domain
- distributed-systems, networking
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100