Single Point of Failure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008) |
A Single Point of Failure, (SPOF), is a part of a system which, if it fails, will stop the entire system from working. They are undesirable in any system whose goal is high availability, be it a network, software application or other industrial system.
The assessment of a potentially single location of failure identifies the critical components of a complex system, that would provoke a total systems failure in case of malfunction. Highly reliable systems may not rely on any such component.
The strategy to prevent from total systems failure is
- Reduced Complexity
Complex systems shall be designed according to principles decomposing complexity to the required level.
- Redundancy
Redundant Systems include a double instance for any critical component with an automatic and robust switch or handle to turn control over to the other well functioning unit
- Diversity
Diversity design is a special redundancy concept that cares for the doubling of functionality in completely different design setups of components to decrease the probability that redundant components might fail both at the same time under identical condition.
- Transparency
Whatever systems design will deliver, long term reliability is based on transparent and comprehensive documentation.
