C++/linux network programming

The deliverable of this project is implementing the master/slave replication protocol in the IMVU istatd open source project. The project is developed in C++ on Linux, and the code has to compile out of the box on ubuntu 10.04, ubuntu 12.04, and Arch Linux 201301. “IMVU istatd” is a daemon-and-agent system that collects, collates, and reports counter information from a large number of computers to a central server. That central server keeps time series databases for the counters. These statistics are important to the IMVU business, and we want to keep a secondary server in sync with the data collected by the first server. A protocol has been defined for a secondary server to be configured to contact a current master server, be told about data that needs to be replicated, and then receive replication data on an ongoing basis to create an up-to-date clone of the master. Should the master fail, the replica will be switched to master mode, and the system reconfigured to answer to the IP address of the master -- the replica system becomes the new master. There is existing code for all of the server data collection, storage, query, and connection functionality already. This project simply implements the replication protocol, described below, on top of this existing functionality and code. The delivery should include well documented and tested C++ code that builds on the defined Linux versions, and efficiently implements the behavior descrived. All ownership, copyright, clear title and moral rights in the work product must be transfered to IMVU, Inc, as part of the accepted delivery. IMVU may possibly further release this work product as open source. Periodic checkpoints will be established as part of the project plan, and review to identify acceptance/re-work will be done by IMVU, Inc. Detailed description of work: see attachment.