{"id":160246,"date":"2009-04-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/msr-research-item\/modist-transparent-model-checking-of-unmodified-distributed-systems\/"},"modified":"2023-08-19T19:13:21","modified_gmt":"2023-08-20T02:13:21","slug":"modist-transparent-model-checking-of-unmodified-distributed-systems","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-item","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/publication\/modist-transparent-model-checking-of-unmodified-distributed-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"MODIST: Transparent Model Checking of Unmodified Distributed Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"asset-content\">\n<p>MODIST is the first model checker designed for transparently checking unmodified distributed systems running on unmodified operating systems. It achieves this transparency via a novel architecture: a thin interposition layer exposes all actions in a distributed system and a centralized, OS-independent model checking engine explores these actions systematically. We made MODIST practical through three techniques: an execution engine to simulate consistent, deterministic executions and failures; a virtual clock mechanism to avoid false positives and false negatives; and a state exploration framework to incorporate heuristics for efficient error detection.<\/p>\n<p>We implemented MODIST on Windows and applied it to three well-tested distributed systems: Berkeley DB, a widely used open source database; MPS, a deployed Paxos implementation; and PACIFICA, a primary-backup replication protocol implementation. MODIST found 35 bugs in total. Most importantly, it found protocol-level bugs (i.e., flaws in the core distributed protocols) in every system checked: 10 in total, including 2 in Berkeley DB, 2 in MPS, and 6 in PACIFICA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .asset-content --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MODIST is the first model checker designed for transparently checking unmodified distributed systems running on unmodified operating systems. It achieves this transparency via a novel architecture: a thin interposition layer exposes all actions in a distributed system and a centralized, OS-independent model checking engine explores these actions systematically. We made MODIST practical through three techniques: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"msr-content-type":[3],"msr-research-highlight":[],"research-area":[13547,13568],"msr-publication-type":[193716],"msr-product-type":[],"msr-focus-area":[],"msr-platform":[],"msr-download-source":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-field-of-study":[],"msr-conference":[263941],"msr-journal":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-160246","msr-research-item","type-msr-research-item","status-publish","hentry","msr-research-area-systems-and-networking","msr-research-area-technology-for-emerging-markets","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_publishername":"USENIX","msr_edition":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_published_date":"2009-4-22","msr_host":"","msr_duration":"","msr_version":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_journal":"","msr_volume":"","msr_number":"","msr_editors":"","msr_series":"","msr_issue":"","msr_organization":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_notes":"The 6th Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_download_urls":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":1,"msr_main_download":"207707","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_doi":"","msr_publication_uploader":[{"type":"file","viewUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/modist_nsdi2009.pdf","id":"207707","title":"modist_nsdi2009.pdf","label_id":"243109","label":0}],"msr_related_uploader":"","msr_attachments":[{"id":207707,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/modist_nsdi2009.pdf"}],"msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"text","value":"Junfeng Yang","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"text","value":"Tisheng Chen","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"text","value":"Ming Wu","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"text","value":"Zhilei Xu","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"text","value":"Xuezheng Liu","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Haoxiang Lin","user_id":31972,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Haoxiang Lin"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Mao Yang","user_id":32798,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Mao Yang"},{"type":"text","value":"Fan Long","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Lintao Zhang","user_id":32693,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Lintao Zhang"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Lidong Zhou","user_id":32673,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Lidong Zhou"}],"msr_impact_theme":[],"msr_research_lab":[],"msr_event":[],"msr_group":[144927,510017],"msr_project":[171311],"publication":[],"video":[],"download":[],"msr_publication_type":"inproceedings","related_content":{"projects":[{"ID":171311,"post_title":"MODIST: Transparent Model Checking of Unmodified Cloud Systems","post_name":"modist-transparent-model-checking-of-unmodified-cloud-systems","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2014-03-08 00:51:50","post_modified":"2017-10-10 04:58:12","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/modist-transparent-model-checking-of-unmodified-cloud-systems\/","post_excerpt":"MODIST is a practical software model checker for unmodified concurrent, distributed and cloud systems. MODIST explores different execution paths systematically as well as simulating a variety of environment faults to discover subtle corner-case defects. We have applied MODIST in Oracle Berkely DB, MPS(Paxos implementation), SQL Azure, Windows Azure Storage and other real systems, and found many new bugs.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/171311"}]}}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/160246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-research-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/160246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":705220,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/160246\/revisions\/705220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-content-type?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-highlight","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-highlight?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-publication-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-publication-type?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-product-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-product-type?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-focus-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-focus-area?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-platform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-platform?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-download-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-download-source?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-field-of-study","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-field-of-study?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-conference","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-conference?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-journal","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-journal?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=160246"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=160246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}