Distributed Systems

An Introduction
What are Distributed Systems?
• A distributed system is one in which components located at
networked computers communicate and coordinate their
actions only by passing messages.
• characteristics of distributed systems:
– Concurrency[parallel] of components,
– lack of a global clock and
– independent failures of components.
Example of distributed systems: Web Search
• Global number of searches over 10 billion per month.
• The Web consists of over 63 billion pages and one trillion unique
web addresses.
– Google has designed a distributed system infrastructure to support
search.
– This represents one of the largest and most complex distributed
systems installations in the history of computing.
– this infrastructure include:
• very large numbers of networked computers
• a distributed file system
• a distributed storage system that offers fast access to very large datasets;
• a programming model
Distributed computing as a utility: Ex.The Cloud
• Companies provide computing resources as utility. (like water
and electricity)
• Resources that can be rented: Hardware, and Software
• The term cloud computing is used to capture this vision of
computing as a utility
• A cloud is defined as: a set of Internet-based application,
storage and computing services sufficient to support most
users’ needs.
 Cloud Computing

Implemented by: Cluster computing, Grid Computing, or Peer-to-Peer Systems

Cluster Computing
• A cluster computer is a set of interconnected computers that cooperate
closely to provide a single, integrated high performance computing
capability.
• It consist of PCs running a standard version of an operating system such
as Linux, interconnected by a local area network.
• It provides a range of cloud services:
– high-performance computing capabilities,
– mass storage (for example through data centers), and
– richer application services such as web search
• Google, for example relies on a massive cluster computer architecture to
implement its search engine and other services.
Google Cloud
 Grid Computing
• enable the sharing of resources such as files, computers,
software, data and sensors on a very large scale.
• supported by heterogeneous computer hardware,
operating systems, programming languages and
applications.
• Management is needed to coordinate the use of resources
to ensure that clients get what they need and that services
can afford to supply it.
 Difference between Cluster and Grid
• Cluster Computing:
A Computer Cluster is a local network of two or more
homogenous computers. A computation process on such a
computer network i.e. cluster is called Cluster Computing.
• Grid Computing:
Grid Computing can be defined as a network of homogenous
or heterogeneous computers working together over a long
distance to perform a task that would rather be difficult for a
single machine.
 Peer–to–Peer Systems
• Large number of computers connected to the Internet
• Users make a part of their resources to be shared by
others
• Storing and retrieving data taken place using an overlay
• Each node plays as a server and a client
• Copyright was a measure issue
 Challenges to Distributed Systems
• Heterogeneity
• Openness
• Security
• Scalability
• Failure handling
• Concurrency
• Transparency
• Quality of service
 Heterogeneity
• The Internet enables users to access services and run
applications over a heterogeneous collection of computers and
networks.
• Heterogeneity (that is, variety and difference) applies to all of
the following:
– • networks;
– • computer hardware;
– • operating systems;
– • programming languages;
– • implementations by different developers.
 Heterogeneity - Middleware
• middleware is a software layer that provides a programming
abstraction as well as masking [ hiding ] the heterogeneity of
the:
– networks, hardware, operating systems and programming languages.
• Examples:
– The Common Object Request Broker (CORBA).
– Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI), supports only.
• Most middleware is implemented over the Internet protocols,
which themselves mask the differences of the underlying
networks.
 Heterogeneity – Mobile code
• Code that can be transferred to another machine and run at the
destination.
• Example Java Applets
• Code suitable for running on one computer is not necessarily suitable for
running on another. [ T /F ]
• Solution is the Virtual Machine.
• Compiler converts the source program to an intermediate code (Byte
Code)
• The Byte Code can be executed on the Virtual Machine, by converting it
to that machine code.
 Openness
• • Open systems are characterized by the fact that their key interfaces
are published.
• • Open distributed systems are based on the provision of a uniform
communication mechanism and published interfaces for access to
shared resources.
• • Open distributed systems can be constructed from heterogeneous
hardware and software, possibly from different vendors. But the
conformance [ harmony ] of each component to the published standard
must be carefully tested and verified if the system is to work correctly.
• Confirmation is done through using the Request For Comments RFC’s.
 Security
Security for information resources has three components:
• Confidentiality (protection against disclosure to unauthorized
individuals),
• Integrity (protection against alteration or corruption), and
• Availability (protection against interference with the means to access
the resources). Prevent Denial of Service attacks DoS.

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 Security (Cont.)
• However, the following two security challenges have not yet been fully
met:
– Denial of service attacks: bombarding the service with such a large number of
pointless requests that the serious users are unable to use it.
– Security of mobile code: Consider someone who receives an executable program
as an electronic mail attachment: the possible effects of running the program are
unpredictable; for example, it may seem to display an interesting picture but in
reality it may access local resources, or perhaps be part of a denial of service.
 Scalability
• A system is scalable if it will remain effective when there is a
significant increase in the number of resources and the
number of users.
• The design of scalable distributed systems presents the
following challenges:
– Controlling the cost of physical resources: for example, It must be
possible to add server computers to avoid the performance
bottleneck that would arise if a single file server had to handle all file
access requests.
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 Scalability (Cont.)
– Controlling the performance loss: apply algorithms that use
hierarchical structure (has complexity Long N) instead of using a liner
structure (has complexity of N), for example to access the DNS
– Preventing software resources running out: for example IPv4 is
running out, a new IPv6 is proposed.
– Avoiding performance bottlenecks: In general, algorithms should be
decentralized to avoid having performance bottlenecks.
 Failure handling
• Failures in a distributed system are partial – that is, some components fail while
others continue to function.
• Detecting failures: by check sum, for example
• Masking failures: hiding it from users, by message re-transmission for example.
And data replication can be used.
• Recovery from failures: Recovery involves the design of software so that the
state of permanent data can be recovered or ‘rolled back’ after a server has
crashed.
• Redundancy: Services can be made to tolerate failures by the use of redundant
components, for example: There should always be at least two different routes
between any two routers in the Internet.
 Concurrency
• Both services and applications provide resources that can be
shared by clients in a distributed system.
• There is therefore a possibility that several clients will attempt
to access a shared resource at the same time.
• For example, a data structure that records bids for an auction
may be accessed very frequently when it gets close to the
deadline time.
• For an object to be safe in a concurrent environment, its
operations must be synchronized in such a way that its data
remains consistent.
 Transparency
• that is hidden from the user (programmer, system developer, user or
application program).
• A transparency is provided by including some set of mechanisms in
the distributed system at a layer below the interface where
the transparency is required.
• Transparency levels:
– Access transparency enables local and remote resources to be accessed using
identical operations.
– Location transparency enables resources to be accessed without knowledge of
their physical or network location.
– Concurrency transparency enables several processes to operate concurrently
using shared resources without interference between them.
 Transparency
• Transparency levels:
– Replication transparency enables multiple instances of resources to be used to
increase reliability and performance.
– Failure transparency enables the concealment of faults, allowing users and
application programs to complete their tasks despite the failure of hardware or
software components.
– Mobility transparency allows the movement of resources and clients within a
system without affecting the operation of users or programs.
– Performance transparency allows the system to be reconfigured to improve
performance as loads vary.
– Scaling transparency allows the system and applications to expand in scale
without change to the system structure or the application algorithms.