An Application Framework for High Available Systems in Node.JS

Abstract: “Node.JS”, an event-oriented framework for coding JavaScript programs on the server side, is coming out as an emergent technology for creating efficient and scalable network applications of high performance and low memory consumption. Yet, its characteristic of handling several, even thousands, of connections by using one single process, opts to be a vulnerability when creating highly available applications. Thus, a research has been conducted to confirm if this framework is capable of meeting such requirements despite the odds. During the course of this investigation, a study about failures in Internet Services has been conducted, showing that the technology chosen is not the most common reason for service disruptions. In addition, a prototype, based on a Fault Model Enforcement and design patterns for fault tolerant software, was developed to monitor an Instant Messaging service (also written in JavaScript) at system and application level and to provide redundancy by communicating with other nodes within a cluster system whenever it crashes. The results obtained through a series of fault-injection testings show the functionalities of the newly created system, confirming that Node.JS seems to meet the requirements needed to develop a highly available program. Further testing in regards to stability and CPU usage, together with the implementation of better tools for monitoring, can improve the robustness of the system.