DistOS 2014W Midterm Review
Themes
- Scaling
- caching
- consistency
- specialized versus general solutions
- OS abstractions
- paths not taken
- network transparency (making remote look like local)
- reliability
- fault tolerance
- redundancy
- availability
- resource sharing
- information sharing
- communication
- collaboration
- peer-to-peer versus hierarchy
- latency versus bandwidth
Questions
- The architecture of distributed OSs typically are some mix of peer-to-peer and hierarchies (e.g. master/slave) in the arrangement of servers. Give an example of each and explain why the choice was made (a hierarchy versus peer-to-peer).
- "UNIX compatibility is increasingly sacrificed in order to improve scalability." Argue for or against.
- Ceph is the solution to what problem? How does it solve that problem? (Choose at least one problem to discuss.)
- Describe three strategies used to increase scalability in distributed operating systems. Give and explain specific examples of each.
- What is a distributed operating system? Does a distributed operating system exist (at Internet scale)? Explain.
- Describe three data consistency models that have been used in the systems we have discussed in class. Why are there different ones, and what are the trade-offs? Give at least one example of each.