COMP 3000 Essay 1 2010 Question 3

Question

To what extent do modern Windows systems provide mainframe-equivalent functionality? What about Windows coupled with add-on commercial products such as VMWare's virtualization and EMC's storage solutions? Explain.

Answer

added introduction points and sections for each paragraph so you guys can edit one paragraph at a time instead of the whole document. If you want to claim a certain paragram just put your name into the section first. ~ Andrew (abown2@connect.carleton.ca) 12:00 10th of October 2010

Introduction

Main Aspects of mainframes:

• redundancy which enables high reliability and security
• high input/output
• backwards-compatibility with legacy software
• support massive throughput
• Systems run constantly so they can be hot upgraded

http://www.exforsys.com/tutorials/mainframe/mainframe-features.html

Linking sentence about how windows can duplicate mainframe functionality.

here's the introduction ~ Abown (11:12 pm, October 12th 2010)

Mainframes have been always used for large corporations to process thousands of small transactions, but what strengths allow for mainframes to be useful in their purpose. Mainframes are extremely useful in business because they are designed to run without downtime. This is achieved by have tremendous redundancy which allows for mainframes to be extremely reliable which gives security when concerning data loss due to downtime. Also mainframes can be upgraded without taking the system down which allows for repairs, which further increase reliability. But after upgrading a mainframe the software does not change so they offer the features of backwards compatibility through virtualization so software never needs to be replaced, it just it processed quicker. But computers are only able to run as fast as the data they are receiving so mainframes support high input/output so that the mainframe is always being utilized. To make sure mainframes are utilized to their fullest they support powerful schedulers which ensure the fastest throughput for processing transactions as possible.[1] With so many features how is Windows based system supposed to compete with a mainframe? The fact of the matter is their are features in Windows and software solutions which can duplicate these features in a Windows environment. Be it redundancy, real-time upgrading, virtualization, high input/output or utilizing resources.

History

Before comparing Windows systems and mainframes, the history of what mainframes were used for and where they came from must be understood. The first official mainframe computer was the UNIVAC I. [2] It was designed for the U.S. Census Bureau by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. [3]. By this point in history, there were no personal computers, and the only people who could afford a computer were massive businesses. The main functionality of these mainframes were to calculate company payrolls, sales records, analyze sales performance, and store all company information.
Achamney 01:30, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

This doesn't seem to actually be pertinent to the question at hand. Question does not have any indication of the need to provide a history. Andrew Bown 11:16, 12 October 2010

Redundancy

Nshires 04:10, 13 October 2010 (UTC) A large feature of mainframes is their ability for redundancy. Mainframes produce redundancy by using the provider's off-site redundancy faeture. This feature lets the customer move all of their processes and applications onto the providers mainframe while the provider makes repairs on the customers system. Another way that mainframes create redundancy is their use of multi-processors that share the same memory. If one processor dies, the rest of the processors still keep all of the cache. There are multiple ways windows systems can create this redundancy feature that mainframes have. The first way windows systems can create this is by creating a windows cluster server. The cluster uses the same feature of the mainframe's multi-processor system. Another way windows systems can create redundancy is by using virtual machines. VMWare has a feature called Microsoft Cluster Service, which allows users to create a cluster of virtual machines on one physical windows system (or multiple physical machines). The virtual machines set up two different networks. They create a private network for communication in between the virtual machines and then a public network to control I/O services. The virtual machines also share storage to create concurrency so that if one fails, the other still has all of the data.

(this is what I've gotten out of some researching so far, comments and any edits/suggestions if I'm on the right track or not are greatly apreciated :) )

• note: This is the second time I have written this, make sure to save whatever you edit in notepad or whatever first so that you don't lose everything*

link to VMWare's cluster virtualization http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_mscs.pdf

Nshires 04:10, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

hot swapping

Nshires 16:47, 13 October 2010 (UTC) Another useful feature that mainframes have is the ability to hot-swap. Hot-swapping occurs when there is faulty hardware in one of the processors inside the mainframe and technicians are able to swap out this component without the mainframe being turned off or crashing. Hot-swapping is also used when upgrading processors inside the mainframe. With the right software and setup (redundancy) a mainframe is able to upgrade and/or repair their mainframe as they see fit. Using VMWare on a Windows system allows users to hot-add RAM and hot-plug adds a new virtual CPU to the virtualized system. Using these hot-adding and hot-plugging techniques the virtual computer can grow in size to be able to accept loads varying in size. In non-virtual systems, Windows coupled with the program Go-HotSwap can hot-plug CompactPCI components. CompactPCI components allow many different devices to be plugged into their slots (e.g. multiple SATA hard drives) which makes a Windows system with these technologies very modular.

These are the concepts I've been able to figure out so far about hot-swapping/hot-upgrading, feel free to add/edit and what-not!

Sources: http://searchvmware.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid179_gci1367631,00.html http://www.jungo.com/st/hotswap_windows.html Nshires 16:47, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

backwards-compatibility

Backwards-compatibility means that the newer software version can recognize what the old version write and how it work. It is a relationship between the two versions. If the new components provide all the functionality of the old one, we said that the new component is backwards compatible.In computer mainframe era, many applications are backwards compatible.For example,the code written 20 years ago in IBM System/360 can be run in latest mainframe (like zSeries, System/390 family,System z9,etc).This because that models in mainframe computer provide a combination of special hardware,special microcode and an emulation program to simulate the target system.(The IBM 7080 transistorized computer was backward compatible with all models of the IBM 705 vacuum tube computer.) Sometimes mainframe also need customers to halt the computer and download the emulation program.

In Windows OS,one method to implement backward-compatibility is to add applications.Then the platfrom can be compatible with most softwares from early version.The other method is the Windows Operating Systems usually have various subsystems.The software originally designed for older version or other OSs can be run in the subsystems.Such as Window NT, it has MS-DOS and Win16 subsystems.But Windows 7's backwards-compatibility is not very good.If kernel is different, the OSs can't be compatible with each other.But it doesn't mean that older programs won't run, virtualization will be used to make them run.

--Zhangqi 08:34, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

ps. I didn't find perfect resources,just these.If you guys think any opinion is not correct,plz edit it or give suggestions :)

http://www.windows7news.com/2008/05/23/windows-7-to-break-backwards-compatibility/

http://computersight.com/computers/mainframe-computers/

Hey, this sounds really good, I'd add an example where you say 'one method to implement backward-compatibility is to add applications'. And I did a little research and I found another way to create backwards compatibility using shims: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shim_%28computing%29 it pretty much intercepts the calls and changes them so that the old program can run on a new system. Good Work, Nshires 16:56, 13 October 2010 (UTC)