Distributed Operating Systems: Concepts and Practice

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 464 pages
• Published by: Prentice Hall September 10, 1999
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0130798436
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0130798435
• Book Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 2 pounds

Card Catalog Description
"Distributed Operating Systems: Concepts and Practice offers a good balance of real world examples and the underlying theory of distributed computing. The flexible design makes it usable for students, practitioners and corporate training."--BOOK JACKET. "This book describes in detail each major aspect of distributed operating systems from a conceptual and practical viewpoint. This book proves invaluable as a course text or as a reference book for those who wish to update and enhance their knowledge base. A Companion Website provides supplemental information."--BOOK JACKET.

From the Inside Flap
Preface

This book looks at concepts and practice in distributed computing. It is designed to be useful not only for students but for practitioners and corporate training as well. Over the past decade, computer systems have become increasingly more advanced. Most computers are connected to some type of network on a regular basis. The installation of LANs at smaller businesses is even becoming commonplace. LANs are also being installed in custom homes at an ever-increasing rate. software technology must keep up and so must our future and current practitioners! At the current pace, it is only a matter of time before a working knowledge of distributed systems is mandatory for all computer scientists, because this technology pertains to a majority of all computers and their applications. INTENDED AUDIENCE While the study of standard operating systems concepts is extremely important for computer science undergraduates, there is a significant and ever-increasing demand to extend this knowledge in the graduate and fourth-year undergraduate curriculum as well as for the practitioner out in industry. Therefore, there is a great need to study distributed operating systems concepts as well as practical solutions and approaches. This book is intended to meet this need for both students and practitioners. OBJECTIVE

The objective of this book is to describe in detail each major aspect of distributed operating systems from a conceptual and practical viewpoint. Thus, it includes relevant examples of real operating systems to reinforce the concepts and to illustrate the decisions that must be made by distributed system designers. Operating systems such as Amoeba, Clouds and Chorus (the base technology for JavaOS) are utilized as examples throughout the book. In addition, the case study on Windows 2000 provides an example of a real commercial solution. Technologies such as CORBA, DCOM, NFS, LDAP, X.500, Kerberos, RSA, DES, SSH, and NTP are also included to demonstrate real-life solutions to various aspects of distributed computing. In addition, a simple client/server application is included in the appendix that demonstrate key distributed computing programming concepts such as the use of INET sockets, pthreads, and synchronization via mutex operations.

In summary, this book focuses on the concepts, theory and practice in distributed systems. It is designed to be useful for practitioners, fourth year undergraduate as well as graduate level students and assumes that the reader has taken a basic operating system course. It is hoped that this book will prove to be invaluable not only for those already active in industry who wish to update and enhance one's knowledge base but also for future reference for those who have used it as a course text. ORGANIZATION AND PEDAGOGICAL FEATURES

This book is divided into two parts. The first part, Chapter 1-6, presents the base foundation for distributed computing. The second part, Chapter 7-11, expands on these topics and delves more heavily into advanced distributed operating system topics. The pedagogical features included in this book are the following.

Detail Boxes to further enhance understanding. These boxes contain information such as complex algorithms and more in depth examples. More than 150 figures and tables to help illustrate concepts. A case study of Windows 2000 to demonstrate a real life commercial solutions. Project oriented exercises (those with italicized numbers) to provide "hands on" experience. Exercises that build upon concepts covered in earlier chapters. Reference pointers to relevant sources including:
A. overview sources for further in-depth study,
B. research papers, and
C. 'core' web & ftp sites. A simplified distributed application program to demonstrate key distributing programming concepts. Comprehensive glossary of terms (boldfaced words appear in the glossary) to provide a centralized location for key definitions. Complete list of acronyms to aid readability and provide a centralized location for easy reference. Chapter summaries. Comprehensive index, primary references in bold. Book website located at prenhall/galli. SUGGESTIONS FOR INSTRUCTORS

This book is designed to provide maximum flexibility to instructors and has pedagogical features inherent within the text to allow you to customize the coverage to best meet the requirements of your class and your institution's mission statement. In preparing this book, the only assumption made is that a basic introductory to operating systems course has been taken by the reader. Select topics that may be included in an introductory operating system course but are sometimes omitted, covered lightly, often not grasped or may have been forgotten but nonetheless are key to distributed operating systems, are included where appropriate. This material need not be presented in the classroom but is included in the book so that you can be assured that the students have the basis necessary for the more advanced distributed topics. Below are suggestions on how this book may be used for those requiring additional practical emphasis as well as for those desiring additional research emphasis. A graduate course desiring to add both types of emphasis may wish to use suggestions from both categories. Additional information may be available at the author's Prentice Hall website, prenhall/galli. Adding Practical Emphasis

The following are a few suggestions for adding practical emphasis to a course utilizing this text. Have the students, either individually or as a group complete one or more of the `Project Exercises', those indicated by an italicized exercise number at the end of relevant chapters. Additional practical experience may be achieved if their design and implementation is orally presented to the class. Cover all Detail Boxes related to real-life implementations. Spend class time covering the Windows 2000 Case study. Create an individual or group project working with the distributed features of Windows 2000. Have the students expand or change the Surgical Scheduling Program. This may be as simple as changing the type of interprocess communication employed or as complex as creating another program utilizing the same distributed concepts. Adding Research Emphasis

The following are a few suggestions for adding a research emphasis to a course utilizing this book.

Have the students, either individually or as a group, prepare a paper on a topic relevant to distributed operating systems. Reference papers cited at the end of each chapter should serve as good starting points. These projects may include an oral presentation. Present lecture material from the relevant RFCs or research papers cited at the end of each chapter that are available on the web and include it the list of required reading for the students. Have the students seek the relevant RFCs or research papers cited at the end of each chapter that are available on the web and prepare a summary. Select a subset of the reference papers cited at the end of each chapter and create a spiral bound accompaniment to be used in conjunction throughout the course with the book. A large number of bookstores at research institutions have the ability to perform the copyright clearing necessary for this purpose.

Reader Reviews
While this book covers a lot of the areas pertaining to distributed OSes, it is very tersely worded and I have to wonder what monkey edited it. At least 1/2 of the pages contain grammatical errors. Figures are also stunningly frequently mislabeled. There is no way anyone should use this book until these errors are fixed for either a text or their own information. Contentwise, the book assumes that you remember everything from your basic OS class, it doesn't explain ANYTHING that would normally be covered by a more basic OS book. This doesn't cut the mustard because not every professor covers every topic relating to normal OSes in Intro to OS(also, this book may be used at the masters level where it is possible that its been ten years since the student has taken intro to os). It may be ok for a quickie reference into possible algorithms, but as an actual learning guide it stinks. Sadly, I can't give this 0 stars.