For Lecture, Monday, April 24
Last lecture on file systems. The focus of this lecture will be distributed file systems. In preparation, read Tanenbaum, Chapter 13 through Section 13.2.4.
For Recitation, Tuesday, April 25
Read "Disconnected operation in the Coda file system" by Kistler and Satyanarayanan, reading #35. This paper is the second paper in 6.033 that discusses issues related to mobile computing. The first one talked about mobile IP (reading #19); the Coda paper looks at issues when a mobile computer disconnects and reconnects from a file server. Everyone calls Satyanarayanan "Satya."
Your one-page reading report should address the following question:
One of the main motivations behind the design of Coda is to simplify the use of portable computers by supporting disconnected operation. In what ways do portable computers gain from Coda? What is the justification for having both first and second class replication? How does Venus manage the cache in a manner that balances the needs of connected and disconnected operations?
For Lecture, Wednesday, April 26
First lecture of last technical topic in 6.033. The topic of this set of lectures is fault-tolerant computing systems. In preparation, read "The space shuttle primary computer system" by Gifford and Spector, Reading #37. This paper is the first of a series of papers that report on critical computer systems. In the next couple of weeks we will read two others.
For Recitation, Thursday, April 27
The reading for today is "High-availability computer systems" by Gray and Siewiorek, Reading #36. This paper is another heavy duty paper; read it with care. In addition, read "Chocolate" by Plauger (Reading #39) and "Engineering: history and failure" by Petroski (Reading #38). The last two papers are very short, but give you some good insights. Good easy reading.
For Lecture, Monday, May 1
In preparation, read Tanenbaum, Chapter 11, Section 4. This section covers transactions, which we will study in detail in this week. Read the section with care.