distributed-snapshot · shipping · also global-state snapshot

Distributed snapshot

A distributed snapshot records a coordinated global state of participating processes and their communication channels.

In the Chandy-Lamport model, channels are reliable and FIFO with finite delivery delays. Channel state includes messages sent but not yet received at the recorded boundaries. This is not a filesystem snapshot or, by itself, a durable backup.

Relations

related

snapshot, application-consistent-snapshot, crash-consistency, backup

Citations

1. Chandy and Lamport (1985): Distributed Snapshots: Determining Global States of Distributed Systems, sections 2-4, ACM TOCS 3(1), 63-75 (accessed 2026-10-13)
2. Snapshots and backups: which failures can you recover from? (accessed 2026-10-13)

JSON: /data/terms/distributed-snapshot.json