Chapter 1 - Introduction

1.1 Introduction and Definition

 before the mid-80s, computers were
 very expensive (hundred of thousands or even millions of
dollars)
 very slow (a few thousand instructions per second)
 not connected among themselves
 after the mid-80s: two major developments
 cheap and powerful microprocessor-based computers
appeared
 computer networks
 LANs at speeds ranging from 10 to 1000 Mbps
 WANs at speed ranging from 64 Kbps to gigabits/sec
 consequence
 feasibility of using a large network of computers to work for the
same application; this is in contrast to the old centralized
systems where there was a single computer with its peripherals

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 Definition of a Distributed System
 a distributed system is:
a collection of independent computers that appears to its
users as a single coherent system - computer (Tanenbaum
& Van Steen)

 this definition has two aspects:

1. hardware: autonomous machines
2. software: a single system view for the users

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 Other Definitions
a distributed system is a system designed to support the
development of applications and services which can exploit a
physical architecture consisting of multiple, autonomous
processing elements that do not share primary memory but
cooperate by sending asynchronous messages over a
communication network (Blair & Stefani)

a distributed system is one that stops you getting any work

done when a machine you’ve never even heard of crashes
(Leslie)

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 Why Distributed?
 Resource and Data Sharing
 printers, databases, multimedia servers, ...
 Availability, Reliability
 the loss of some instances can be hidden
 Scalability, Extensibility
 the system grows with demand (e.g., extra servers)
 Performance
 huge power (CPU, memory, ...) available
 Inherent distribution, communication
 organizational distribution, e-mail, video

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 Problems of Distribution
 Concurrency, Security
 clients must not disturb each other
 Privacy
 e.g., when building a preference profile
 unwanted communication such as spam
 Partial failure
 we often do not know where the error is (e.g., RPC)
 Location, Migration, Replication
 clients must be able to find their servers
 Heterogeneity
 hardware, platforms, languages, management

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 Characteristics of Distributed Systems
 differences between the computers and the ways they
communicate are hidden from users
 users and applications can interact with a distributed system
in a consistent and uniform way regardless of location
 distributed systems should be easy to expand and scale
 a distributed system is normally continuously available, even
if there may be partial failures

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1.2 Organization and Goals of a Distributed System
 to support heterogeneous computers and networks and to
provide a single-system view, a distributed system is
often organized by means of a layer of software called
middleware that extends over multiple machines

a distributed system organized as middleware; note that the middleware

layer extends over multiple machines 8
 Goals of a distributed system: a distributed system should
 easily connect users with resources (printers, computers,
storage facilities, data, files, Web pages, ...)
 reasons: economics, to collaborate and exchange
information
 be transparent: hide the fact that the resources and
processes are distributed across multiple computers
 be open
 be scalable
Transparency in a Distributed System
 a distributed system that is able to present itself to users
and applications as if it were only a single computer
system is said to be transparent

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 different forms of transparency in a distributed system
Transparency Description
Access Hide differences in data representation
(endianness, file naming, ...) and how a
resource
is accessed
Location Hide where a resource is physically located;
where
is http://www.prenhall.com/index.html?
(naming)
Migration Hide that a resource may move to another
location
Relocation Hide that a resource may be moved to
another location while in use; e.g., mobile users
using their wireless laptops
Replication Hide that a resource is replicated
Concurrency Hide that a resource may be shared by
several competitive users; a resource must be left 10
 Openness in a Distributed System
 a distributed system should be open
 we need well-defined interfaces
 interoperability
 components of different origin can communicate
 portability
 components work on different platforms
 another goal of an open distributed system is that it should be
flexible and extensible; easy to configure the system out of
different components; easy to add new components, replace
existing ones
 an Open Distributed System is a system that offers services
according to standard rules that describe the syntax and
semantics of those services; e.g., protocols in networks
 standards - a necessity
 should allow competition in non-normative areas

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  in distributed systems, such services are often specified
through interfaces often described using an Interface Definition
Language (IDL)
 specify only syntax: the names of the functions, types of
parameters, return values, possible exceptions, ...

 Scalability in Distributed Systems

 a distributed system should be scalable
 size: adding more users and resources to the system
 geographically: users and resources may be far apart
 administratively: should be easy to manage even if it
spans many administrative organizations

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  scalability problems: performance problems caused by
limited capacity of servers and networks
Concept Example
Single server for all users-mostly for security
Centralized services
reasons
Centralized data A single on-line telephone book
Doing routing based on complete
Centralized algorithms
information
examples of scalability limitations

 Scaling Techniques
 how to solve scaling problems
 the problem is mainly performance, and arises as a result of
limitations in the capacity of servers and networks (for
geographical scalability)
 three possible solutions: hiding communication latencies,
distribution, and replication
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a. Hide Communication Latencies
 try to avoid waiting for responses to remote service
requests
 let the requester do other useful job
 i.e., construct requesting applications that use only
asynchronous communication instead of synchronous
communication; when a reply arrives the application is
interrupted
 good for batch processing and parallel applications but
not for interactive applications
 for interactive applications, move part of the job to the
client to reduce communication; e.g. filling a form and
checking the entries

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 (a) a server checking the correctness of field entries
(b) a client doing the job
 e.g., shipping code is now supported in Web applications using Java
Applets

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b. Distribution
 e.g., DNS - Domain Name System
 divide the name space into zones
 for details, see later in Chapter 4 - Naming

an example of dividing the DNS name space into zones

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c. Replication
 replicate components across a distributed system to
increase availability and for load balancing, leading to
better performance
 decided by the owner of a resource
 caching (a special form of replication) also reduces
communication latency; decided by the user
 but, caching and replication may lead to consistency
problems (see Chapter 6 - Consistency and Replication)

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1.3 Hardware and Software Concepts
 Hardware Concepts
 different classification schemes exist
 multiprocessors - with shared memory
 multicomputers - that do not share memory
 can be homogeneous or heterogeneous

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  a single
backbone

different basic organizations of processors and memories in distributed

systems
Parallel system?
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 Multiprocessors - Shared Memory
 the shared memory has to be coherent - the same value
written by one processor must be read by another processor
 performance problem for bus-based organization since the
bus will be overloaded as the number of processors
increases
 the solution is to add a high-speed cache memory between
the processors and the bus to hold the most recently
accessed words; may result in incoherent memory

a bus-based multiprocessor
 bus-based multiprocessors are difficult to scale even with caches
 two possible solutions: crossbar switch and omega network

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 Crossbar switch
 divide memory into modules and connect them to the
processors with a crossbar switch
 at every intersection, a crosspoint switch is opened and closed
to establish connection
 problem: expensive; with n CPUs and n memories, n 2 switches
are required

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 Omega network
 use switches with multiple input and output lines
 drawback: high latency because of several switching
stages between the CPU and memory

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 Homogeneous Multicomputer Systems
 also referred to as System Area Networks (SANs)
 the nodes are mounted on a big rack and connected
through a high-performance network
 could be bus-based or switch-based
 bus-based
 shared multiaccess network such as Fast Ethernet can be
used and messages are broadcasted
 performance drops highly with more than 25-100 nodes
(contention)

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 switch-based
 messages are routed through an interconnection network
 two popular topologies: meshes (or grids) and
hypercubes

Hypercube
Grid

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 Heterogeneous Multicomputer Systems
 most distributed systems are built on heterogeneous
multicomputer systems
 the computers could be different in processor type,
memory size, architecture, power, operating system, etc.
and the interconnection network may be highly
heterogeneous as well
 the distributed system provides a software layer to hide the
heterogeneity at the hardware level; i.e., provides
transparency

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 Software Concepts
 OSs in relation to distributed systems
 tightly-coupled systems, referred to as distributed OSs
(DOS)
 the OS tries to maintain a single, global view of the
resources it manages
 used for multiprocessors and homogeneous
multicomputers
 loosely-coupled systems, referred to as network OSs
(NOS)
 a collection of computers each running its own OS;
they work together to make their services and
resources available to others
 used for heterogeneous multicomputers
 Middleware: to enhance the services of NOSs so that a
better support for distribution transparency is provided

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 Summary of main issues

System Description Main Goal

Tightly-coupled operating system for multi- Hide and manage
DOS processors and homogeneous hardware
multicomputers resources
Loosely-coupled operating system for Offer local
NOS heterogeneous multicomputers (LAN and services to remote
WAN) clients
Provide
Additional layer atop of NOS implementing
Middleware distribution
general-purpose services
transparency

an overview of DOSs, NOSs, and middleware

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 Distributed Operating Systems
 two types
 multiprocessor operating system: to manage the resources of a
multiprocessor
 multicomputer operating system: for homogeneous multicomputers
 Uniprocessor Operating Systems
 separating applications from operating system code through a
microkernel

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 Multiprocessor Operating Systems
 extended uniprocessor operating systems to support
multiple processors having access to a shared memory
 a protection mechanism is required for concurrent access to
guarantee consistency
 two synchronization mechanisms: semaphores and monitors
 semaphore: an integer with two atomic operations down (if
s=0 then sleep; s := s-1) and up (s := s+1; wakeup a
sleeping process if any)
 monitor: a programming language construct consisting of
procedures and variables that can be accessed only by the
procedures of the monitor; only a single process at a time
is allowed to execute a procedure

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 Multicomputer Operating Systems
 processors can not share memory; instead communication is through
message passing
 each node has its own
 kernel for managing local resources
 separate module for handling interprocessor communication

general structure of a multicomputer operating system 30

 Distributed Shared Memory Systems
 how to emulate shared memories on distributed systems to
provide a virtual shared memory
 page-based distributed shared memory (DSM) - use the
virtual memory capabilities of each individual node

pages of address space distributed among four machines

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 situation after CPU 1 references page 10

 read-only pages can be easily replicated

situation if page 10 is read only and replication is used

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 Network Operating Systems
 possibly heterogeneous underlying hardware
 constructed from a collection of uniprocessor systems, each with
its own operating system and connected to each other in a
computer network

general structure of a network operating system

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 Services offered by network operating systems
 remote login (rlogin)
 remote file copy (rcp)
 shared file systems through file servers

two clients and a server in a network operating system

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 Middleware
 a distributed operating system is not intended to handle a
collection of independent computers but provides
transparency and ease of use
 a network operating system does not provide a view of a
single coherent system but is scalable and open
 combine the scalability and openness of network operating
systems and the transparency and ease of use of distributed
operating systems
 this is achieved through a middleware, another layer of
software

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general structure of a distributed system as middleware

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 different middleware models exist
 treat every resource as a file; just as in UNIX
 through Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) - calling a procedure on a remote machine
 distributed object invocation
 (details later in Chapter 2 - Communication)

 middleware services
 access transparency: by hiding the low-level message passing
 naming: such as a URL in the WWW
 distributed transactions: by allowing multiple read and write
operations to occur atomically
 security

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 Middleware and Openness
 in an open middleware-based distributed system, the
protocols used by each middleware layer should be the
same, as well as the interfaces they offer to applications

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 a comparison between multiprocessor operating systems,
multicomputer operating systems, network operating
systems, and middleware-based distributed systems

Distributed OS
Network Middleware
Item
Multiproc Multicomp OS -based OS

Degree of
Very High High Low High
transparency
Same OS on all nodes Yes Yes No No
Number of copies of
1 N N N
OS
Basis for Shared Model
Messages Files
communication memory specific
Global, Global,
Resource management Per node Per node
central distributed
Scalability No Moderately Yes Varies
Openness Closed Closed Open Open
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1.4 The Client-Server Model
 how are processes organized in a system
 thinking in terms of clients requesting services from servers

general interaction between a client and a server

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 Application Layering
 no clear distinction between a client and a server; for
instance a server for a distributed database may act as a
client when it forwards requests to different file servers
 three levels exist
 the user-interface level: implemented by clients and
contains all that is required by a client; usually
through GUIs, but not necessarily
 the processing level: contains the applications
 the data level: contains the programs that maintain
the actual data dealt with

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 the general organization of an Internet search engine into three
different layers

 Client-Server Architectures
 how to physically distribute a client-server application across several
machines
 Multitiered Architectures
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 Two-tiered architecture: alternative client-server organizations

a) put only terminal-dependent part of the user interface on the client

machine and let the applications remotely control the presentation
b) put the entire user-interface software on the client side
c) move part of the application to the client, e.g. checking correctness in
filling forms
d) and e) are for powerful client machines

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three tiered architecture: an example of a server acting as a client

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 Modern Architectures
 vertical distribution: when the different tiers correspond directly with
the logical organization of applications
 horizontal distribution: physically split up the client or the server into
logically equivalent parts. e.g. Web server

an example of horizontal distribution of a Web service

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