[tahoe-dev] [tahoe-lafs] #467: change peer-selection to allow introducerless explicit serverlist, alternative backends

[tahoe-lafs]

#467: change peer-selection to allow introducerless explicit serverlist,
alternative backends
---------------------------------------------+------------------------------
 Reporter:  warner                           |           Owner:           
     Type:  enhancement                      |          Status:  new      
 Priority:  major                            |       Milestone:  undecided
Component:  code-peerselection               |         Version:  1.1.0    
 Keywords:  availability preservation cache  |   Launchpad_bug:           
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Comment(by zooko):

 A particular use case for this feature has been suggested by Jake
 Appelbaum and also by Harold Gonzales: store files in Tahoe-LAFS in such a
 way that they are downloaded from publicly visible Tahoe-LAFS storage
 servers ''unless'' those storage servers are unavailable, in which case
 they are automatically downloaded from storage servers hidden inside Tor
 (as Tor Hidden Services).

 This is a necessary improvement if we want to achieve strong censorship-
 resistance by integrating Tahoe-LAFS and Tor, because simply running all
 of your Tahoe-LAFS storage servers as Tor Hidden Services) would never do
 -- it would impose a significant burden on the Tor network and it would be
 slow and unreliable for the downloader. The hybrid approach suggested by
 Jake and Harold means that under normal circumstances (when that file or
 those storage servers are not under active attack) downloaders fetch files
 from the non-Hidden servers, but if that fails then downloaders
 automatically and transparently fall back to the fetching them from the
 Tor Hidden Service servers.

 As of Tahoe-LAFS v1.6.0, the download side of this is working --
 downloaders use the first storage servers which respond to their queries,
 which means they would almost never use Hidden servers unless the non-
 Hidden ones were missing, corrupted, or overloaded. (In Tahoe-LAFS v1.7
 this download strategy will probably be further optimized and
 strengthened.)

 But for the upload side, we need this ticket to be implemented so that we
 can then specify "For every file upload, put exactly 1 share on exactly
 {{{K}}} different Hidden servers, and the rest on non-Hidden servers."

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/ticket/467#comment:8>
tahoe-lafs <http://allmydata.org>
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