VMware, Inc.
In-place garbage collection of a sharded, replicated distributed state machine based on supersedable operations

Abstract:

A log unit provides a shared log for recording updates on data objects. Garbage collection is performed locally and in-place by the log unit. In a marking portion of the garbage collection process, the log unit identifies and marks log entries that record supersedable updates. In a deallocation portion of the process, the log unit deallocates at least portions of the marked log entries that contain supersedable updates.