Computer systems consisting of many machines will be the norm
within a few years. However, making a collection of machines appear
as a single, coherent system - in which the location of files,
servers, programs, or users is invisible to users who do not wish
to know - is a very difficult problem. LOCUS, a distributed version
of the popular operating system Unix, provides an excellent
solution. It makes a collection of computers, whether they are
workstations or mainframes, as easy to use as a single computer by
providing a set of supports for the underlying network that is
virtually invisible to users and - applications programs. This
"network transparency" dramatically reduces the cost of developing
and maintaining software, and considerably improves the user model
of the system. It also permits a variety of system configurations,
including diskless workstations, full duplex I/O to large
mainframes, transparently shared peripherals, and incremental
growth from one workstation to a large network including mainframes
with no effect on applications software required to take advantage
of the altered configurations.In addition to transparent,
distributed operation, LOCUS features also include high performance
and reliability; full Unix compatibility, support for heterogeneous
machines and systems, automatic management of replicated file
storage; and architectural extensions to support extensive
interprocess communication and internetworking.Contents: The LOCUS
Architecture. Distributed Operation and Transparency. The LOCUS
Distributed Filesystem. Remote Tasking. Filesystem Recovery.
Dynamic Reconfiguration of LOCUS. Heterogeneity. System Management.
Appendixes: LOCUS Version Vector Mechnism. LOCUS Internal Network
Messages.Gerald Popek is Professor of Computer Science at UCLA and
President of Locus Computing Corporation in Santa Monica. The LOCUS
Distributed System Architecture is included in the Computer Systems
series, edited by Herb Schwetman.
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