Rendezvous Hashing Explained (2020)
Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago
randorithms.comTechstory
calmpositive
Debate
10/100
Distributed SystemsHashing AlgorithmsData Storage
Key topics
Distributed Systems
Hashing Algorithms
Data Storage
The article explains Rendezvous Hashing, a technique for mapping data to servers in a distributed system, and the discussion highlights its benefits and simplicity.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
Discussion Activity
Light discussionFirst comment
3d
Peak period
2
60-66h
Avg / period
2
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Sep 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM EDT
4 months ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Sep 18, 2025 at 5:31 AM EDT
3d after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
2 comments in 60-66h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Sep 18, 2025 at 5:55 AM EDT
4 months ago
Step 04
Generating AI Summary...
Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
ID: 45253987Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 6:30:43 PM
Want the full context?
Jump to the original sources
Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.
In a nutshell, assuming I understood it correctly: to find the storage location of a file, instead of doing the intuitive pattern of hash(filename)%num_servers (which would change completely every time the list of servers changes) you do something just a tiny bit more complicated:
If you add a server to the list, it may become the new highest priority location for a given filename and it would have to move, but that's only the case for about 1 in length(serverList) files and makes the load balance equally across all servers again. And if the first entry (sortedList[0]) becomes unavailable, you fail over to the second one at [1] etc.