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We describe a methodology for building practical and provably correct distributed systems based on a unique blend of temporal logic of actions-style state-machine refinement and Hoare-logic verification. We demonstrate the methodology on a complex implementation of a Paxos-based replicated state machine library and a lease-based sharded key-value store. We prove that each obeys a concise safety specification as well as desirable liveness requirements. Each implementation achieves performance competitive with a reference system. With our methodology and lessons learned, we aim to raise the standard for distributed systems from \"tested\" to \"correct.\"<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3068608","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,6,28]],"date-time":"2017-06-28T12:27:07Z","timestamp":1498652827000},"page":"83-92","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":47,"title":["IronFleet"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"60","author":[{"given":"Chris","family":"Hawblitzel","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Microsoft Research"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jon","family":"Howell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Google"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Manos","family":"Kapritsos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microsoft Research"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jacob R.","family":"Lorch","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microsoft Research"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bryan","family":"Parno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microsoft Research"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michael L.","family":"Roberts","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microsoft Research"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Srinath","family":"Setty","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microsoft Research"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Brian","family":"Zill","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microsoft Research"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,6,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_1_1_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1243418.1243422"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5555\/1792734.1792766"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1066100.1066102"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3149.214121"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_5_1","volume-title":"Proceedings of Symposia in Applied Mathematics","author":"Floyd R.","year":"1967","unstructured":"Floyd , R. Assigning meanings to programs . In Proceedings of Symposia in Applied Mathematics ( 1967 ). American Mathematical Society, 19--32. Floyd, R. Assigning meanings to programs. In Proceedings of Symposia in Applied Mathematics (1967). American Mathematical Society, 19--32."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_6_1","volume-title":"Proceedings of USENIX OSDI (Oct.","author":"Hawblitzel C.","year":"2014","unstructured":"Hawblitzel , C. , Howell , J. , Lorch , J.R. , Narayan , A. , Parno , B. , Zhang , D. , Zill , B. Ironclad apps : End-to-end security via automated full-system verification . In Proceedings of USENIX OSDI (Oct. 2014 ). Hawblitzel, C., Howell, J., Lorch, J.R., Narayan, A., Parno, B., Zhang, D., Zill, B. Ironclad apps: End-to-end security via automated full-system verification. 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Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA, 2002."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_14_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5555\/1939141.1939161"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_15_1","volume-title":"10th International Workshop Automated Verification of Critical Systems","author":"Lu T.","year":"2010","unstructured":"Lu , T. , Merz , S. , Weidenbach , C. , Bendisposto , J. , Leuschel , M. , Roggenbach , M. , Margaria , T. , Padberg , J. , Taentzer , G. , Lu , T. , Merz , S. , Weidenbach , C. Model checking the Pastry routing protocol . In 10th International Workshop Automated Verification of Critical Systems ( D\u00fcsseldorf, Germany , Sep. 2010 ). Lu, T., Merz, S., Weidenbach, C., Bendisposto, J., Leuschel, M., Roggenbach, M., Margaria, T., Padberg, J., Taentzer, G., Lu, T., Merz, S., Weidenbach, C. Model checking the Pastry routing protocol. In 10th International Workshop Automated Verification of Critical Systems (D\u00fcsseldorf, Germany, Sep. 2010)."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_16_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2517349.2517350"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_17_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5555\/1060289.1060297"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_18_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2699417"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_19_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5555\/1884866.1884885"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_20_1","volume-title":"Proceedings of the Joint Conferences on Computers in Technical Systems and Intelligent Systems, MIPRO","author":"Pek E.","year":"2003","unstructured":"Pek , E. , Bogunovic , N. Formal verification of communication protocols in distributed systems . In Proceedings of the Joint Conferences on Computers in Technical Systems and Intelligent Systems, MIPRO ( 2003 ). Pek, E., Bogunovic, N. Formal verification of communication protocols in distributed systems. In Proceedings of the Joint Conferences on Computers in Technical Systems and Intelligent Systems, MIPRO (2003)."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_21_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1480881.1480934"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_22_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/DSN.2014.45"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_23_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2737924.2737958"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_24_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2854065.2854081"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_25_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2185376.2185383"}],"container-title":["Communications of the ACM"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3068608","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1145\/3068608","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,18]],"date-time":"2025-06-18T03:03:44Z","timestamp":1750215824000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3068608"}},"subtitle":["proving safety and liveness of practical distributed systems"],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2017,6,26]]},"references-count":25,"journal-issue":{"issue":"7","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2017,6,26]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1145\/3068608"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3068608","relation":{},"ISSN":["0001-0782","1557-7317"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0001-0782","type":"print"},{"value":"1557-7317","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2017,6,26]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2017-06-26","order":2,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}