CPCS 662  -- DISTRIBUTED  COMPUTING  SYSTEMS
(Spring 1997)

Slides| Tests | Homeworks| Resources | Projects

In this course, we will study the most important concepts in the design of distributed operating systems. We will discuss the following issues (a tentative guess for the allocated number of lessons per topic is given in brackets) :

Introduction [2] Network OSs vs. distributed OSs Research and design issues Interprocess Communication [3] Message passing RPC Transactions Communication vs. virtual memory Synchronization [2] Event ordering / synchronization Centralized vs. distributed schemes Naming [3] Names, addresses, routes, capabilities Naming facilities, name distribution, name resolution Process Management [2] Processes Remote operations on processes Migration Resource Management [2] Load sharing Load balancing

Protection and Security [2] Threats Distributed access control Encryption, key management, authentication Security as a service (Example: Kerberos) Distributed File Systems [2] Disks, files, transactions Replication, fault-tolerance (Experimental) Distributed OSs: Examples [2] Amoeba Mach Distributed Object Technology [3] Distributed objects and client/server systems Distributed object busses: e.g. CORBA Resilient distributed object technology

In addition we will have two lessons reserved for tests and three lessons reserved for project discussion.

As you see, most of the material served in the lectures is pretty basic. The idea is to provide a solid basis. We will complement this with a very strong hands-on component. In a series of projects we will work on adding or modifying cababilities to an experimental operating system.

• "Distributed Operating Systems: The Logical Design"
  by A. Goscinski, Addison Wesley (ISBN 0 201 41704 9)

I will be following this textbook rather closely. Purchasing it for the course is strongly recommended.

Reference Books

Below is a list of reference books. These books are thought to complement the textbook. Perusing them may help you better understand some issues discussed in class. More reference material will be added as we go along.

• "Distributed Operating Systems"
  by A. Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall

Assessment Method

The course will consist of a considerable number of challenging programming projects, and two tests. Perhaps we will have a small number of homeworks.

The weight will be tentatively distributed as no less than 65% for projects and at most 35% for tests. (If we will have homeworks, the weights will be adjusted accordingly, roughly 60% for projects, 15% for homeworks, and 25% for tests.)

Prerequisites

Projects

In this course we will not limit ourselves to talking about distributed computing systems, but will get our hands dirty messing around with such systems. If you do not know how to program at a sophisticated level, and are not willing to learn it quickly, and if I can have it my way (that is, I can get the infrastructure up and running,) this may be the time to rethink your plans of taking this course!

Fortunately (for you) we will not be able to tinker on bare machines. However, we will use a very sophisticated virtual environment. I plan to make sure that you will be exposed to some very tricky situations, which will foster your understanding of what is (or at least what should be) going on in a distributed OS.

We are currently setting up an experimental distributed object-oriented operating system, called Choices, in particular vChoices.

The projects will be done in groups of two students each. This means that it is a good idea to start looking for a partner soon.

Things may change, so please check back later!

Late-Submission Policy

• All the submission deadlines will include extra time for the consideration of accidental events such as (not limited to) unavailable resource (machines are down,) sickness of students, stock market collapse, etc. This means that additional extensions are generally not granted.
• I reserve the right to penalize lateness with one third of the earned points of the item per class day.

Last But Not Least

Feel free to make comments, suggestions, and such things.

This page is available under URL http://www.cs.tamu.edu/course-info/notes.html by following the appropriate pointer.