Decentralized synchronized secure data storage
- by Alberich
Introduction
Hi, I am going to ask a question which seems utopic for me, but I need to know if there is a way to achieve what I need. And if not, I need to know why not.
The idea
Suppose I have a database structure, in MySql.
I want to create some solution to allow anyone (no matter who, no matter where) to have a synchronized copy (updated clone) of this database (with its content)
Well, and it is not going to be just one synchronized copy, it could (and should) be a multiple replication (supposing the basic, this means, for example, ten copies all over the world)
And, the most important thing: It must be secure. By secure I mean only real-accepted transactions will be synchronized with all the others (no matter how many) database copies/clones.
Note: Since it would be quite difficult to make the synchronization in real-time, I will design everything to make this feature dispensable. So it is not required.
My auto-suggestion
This is how I am thinking to manage it:
Time identifiers and Updates checking: Every action (insert, update, delete...) will be stored as the action instruction itself, associated to the time identifier. [I think better than a DATETIME field, it'll be an INT one, with the number of miliseconds passed from 1st january 2013 on, for example]. So each copy is going to ask to the "neighbour copy" for new actions done since last update, and execute them after checking they are allowed.
Problem 1: the "neighbour copy" could be outdated too.
Solution 1: do not ask just one neighbour, create a random list with some of the copies/clones and ask them for news (I could avoid the list and ask ALL the clones for updates, but this will be inefficient if clones number ascends too much).
Problem 2: Real-time global synchronization is not active. What if...
Someone at CLONE_ENTERPRISING inserts a row into TABLE.
... this row goes to every clone ...
Someone at CLONE_FIXEMALL deletes this row.
... and at the same time, somewhere in an outdated clone ...
Someone at CLONE_DROPOUT edits this row (now inexistent at the other clones)
Solution 2: easy stuff, force a GLOBAL synchronization before doing any new "depending-on-third-data action" (edit, for example). This global synch. will be unnecessary when making an INSERT, for instance.
Note: Well, someone could have some fun, and make the same insert in two clones... since they're not getting updated in real-time, this row will exist twice. But, it's the same as when we have one single database, in some needed cases we check if there is an existing same-row before doing the final action. Not a problem.
Problem 3: It is possible to edit the code and do not filter actions, so someone could spread instructions to delete everything, or just make some trolling activity. This is not a problem, since good clones will always be somewhere. Those who got bad won't interest anymore.
I really appreciate if you read. I know this is not the perfect solution, it has possibly hundred of holes, but it is my basic start. I will now appreciate anything you can teach me now. Thanks a lot.
PS.: It could be that all this I am trying already exists and has its own name. Sorry for asking then (I'd anyway thank this name, if it exists)
