| 6.033 - Computer System Engineering
| Handout 34 - Issued April 23, 1999
|
Assignment 10: April 29 - May 06
Recitation, Thursday, April 29 (R22: LFS)
Today we will discuss reading #34,
"The design and implementation of a log-structured file system",
by
Mendel Rosenblum and John
K. Ousterhout. In view of the discussion in recitation, think
about what the major differences are between LFS and a standard UNIX
file system. What hardware advances does LFS take advantage of? Which
components of the UNIX file system does LFS re-use and why?
Design Project 2 is due today. Remember to turn in two
copies of your report (one with the names of the group members and another
with a 6-digit code instead; put the code on your signed copy as well). This
time the late policy is simple: there are absolutely no
extensions.
Special Lecture, Friday, April 30
Engineering the Big Dig
Dr. Fred Salvucci
F 30 April 2-3pm, 34-101
More info on the special lecture is here.
Lecture, Monday, May 3 (L23: Replication and Consistency)
For lecture read chapters 12 and 14 of Brooks' "The Mythical
Man-Month". This book is a classic that all systems people should have
on their bookshelf. Although slightly old, it contains a unique
perspective and advice on building complex systems. You will probably
re-read this book several times during the next couple of decades. We
all do.
Recitation, Tuesday, May 4 (R23: Coda)
Read "Disconnected operation in the Coda file system" by
Kistler and
Satyanarayanan, reading #31. This paper looks at issues related to
mobile computers that disconnect and reconnect to a file server. By
the way, everyone who's cool calls Satyanarayanan "Satya."
There is no one-pager for today. Work on your critique of another team's
Design Project 2. However, think about this issue while reading the Coda paper:
A system running applications (on top of Coda) which are unaware that they
may become disconnected from their file server(s) violates the
end-to-end argument. Demonstrate that this is the case and then
briefly discuss the main benefit that results from Coda not being end-to-end.
Lecture, Wednesday, May 5 (L24: Complexity)
Please read chapters 5, 8, and 11 of Brooks. Now that we have
completed studying many different systems, we will take a step back
and look again at complexity in this lecture.
Recitation, Thursday, May 6 (Team presentations)
Today is "blind peer review" day for Design
Project 2! You will give the 5-minute presentations you have
prepared on the DP2 paper you received last Thursday. In addition to the
presentation, your team should hand in a single one-page reading
report on the paper that you reviewed as a group. This one-page report
should include the names of all the team members/evaluators as well as
the 6-digit "secret" code. The one-page reports should be attached to
the anonymous copy of the paper you were evaluating.
System aphorism of the week
Il semble que la perfection sont atteinte non quand il n'y a plus rien
à ajouter, mais quand il n'y a plus rien à retrancher.
(It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing
more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away.)
--
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Terre des Hommes (Wind, Sand and
Stars, 1939, Chapter 3 "The Tool")