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Re: how many bits of entropy do we need for load balancing?


From: nanog () jack fr eu org
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2020 01:25:39 +0100

o/

Small of out topic

On 12/14/20 7:16 PM, Lawrence Wobker wrote:
A “perfect” balancing algorithm would be crypto grade hash generation with a large output, and a true modulo operation to select which member we use.
There are 3 kind of hashing algorithm

The first one is used to check the sanity of input, against bit-swapping error for instance
See CRC for instance
Those algorithm are deadly fast, but also dumb as hell


The second one is used for cryptographic purposes
While the output distribution is supposed to be quite good, its most important aspect lies here: it is hard to craft an input matching a specific hash
See sha256 for instance


The last one combines both speed and output distribution
See xxhash for instance


Unless you have a specific security thing in mind, you shall never use a crypto-grade hash algorithm


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