Clusters What is a distributed system (again)

§ “True” Distributed Operating System

u Loosely-coupled hardware
§ Distributed system def. Review
• No shared memory, but provides the “feel” of a single memory
§ Cluster definition
u Tightly-coupled software
§ Clusters vs. distributed systems • One single OS, or at least the feel of one
§ Cluster example 1 – reliable file service u Machines are somewhat, but not completely, autonomous

§ Cluster example 2 – fast web service

§ Classification of clusters
Disk1
M1 P1 M2 P2 M3 P3

Network

M4 P4 M5 P5

1 Printer4 Disk5 2

Clusters (C) vs. Distributed systems (D)

Clusters § structure
u [C] - homogeneous - purchased to perform a certain task

u [D] - heterogeneous - put together from the available hardware

§ A subclass of distributed systems § scale

§ a small scale (mostly) homogeneous (the same hardware and OS) u [C] - small scale - don’t have to make sure that the setup scales
array of computers (located usually in one site) dedicated to small
u [D] - medium/large - have to span (potentially) large number of machines
number of well defined tasks in solving of which the cluster acts as
one single whole. § task
u [C] - specialized - made to perform a small set of well-defined tasks
§ typical tasks for “classic” distributed systems:
u [D] - general - usually have to be general-user computing environments
u file services from/to distributed machines over (college) campus

u distributing workload of all machines on campus

§ price
u [C] - (relatively) cheap
§ typical tasks for a cluster:
u [D] - free(?)/expensive
u high-availability web-service/file service, other high-availability
applications § reliability
u [C] - as good as it needs to be
u computing “farms”.
u [D] - high/low?

§ security
3 u [C] - nodes trust each-other 4
u [D] - nodes do not trust each other

Cluster Cluster examples (cont.)

examples

§ active machine - serves files to the network of computers

pictures taken from “In Search of Clusters”, G.F. Pfister, 1998
§ branches get access to shared information even if one of
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the links or computers fails
§ standby machine -listens to network and updates it’s own copy of
files
§ in case of machine failure - standby machine takes over file service 6
transparent to users
 Cluster examples (cont.)
Classification of clusters
§ Dispatcher (sprayer) machine - sends the web requests to server § By architecture:
machines and makes sure that the servers are evenly loaded
u with hardware additions - OpenVMS, Tandem Himalaya,
§ web service continues even if a server fails Parallel Syspex
u pure software - Beowulf, …

§ By task. There is no dividing line between clusters and true

distributed systems - as we add features the clusters start to
resemble D.S.
u availability

u batch processing

u database

u generic (scientific) computation

u full clusters (distributed systems) - single system image

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