Amoeba -- Introduction

 Amoeba 5.0 is a a general purpose distributed operating

system.
 The researchers were motivated by the declining cost of CPU chips.
 They saw the challenge of designing and implementing software to manage
the growing availability of computing power in a convenient way.
 Basic idea
 users should not be aware of the number or location of processors, file
servers, or other resources. The complete system should appear to be a
single computer.
 At the Free University in Amsterdam, Amoeba ran on a
collection of 80 single-board SPARC computers connected by an
Ethernet, forming a powerful processor pool. [Amoeba 1996 ]

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Processor Pool of 80 single-board SPARC computers.
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 Design Goals (1)

•Distribution:
Connecting together many machines so that multiple independent users can work
on different projects. The machines need not be of the same type, and may be
spread around a building on a LAN.
• Parallelism:
Allowing individual jobs to use multiple CPUs easily. For example, a branch and
bound problem, such as the TSP, would be able to use tens or hundreds of
CPUs. Chess players where the CPUs evaluate different parts of the game tree.
•Transparency:
Having the collection of computers act like a single system. So, the user should
not log into a specific machine, but into the system as a whole. Storage and
location transparency, just-in-time binding
•Performance:
Achieving all of the above in an efficient manner. The basic communication
mechanism should be optimized to allow messages to be sent and received with a
minimum of delay.Also, large blocks of data should be moved from machine to
machine at high bandwidth.
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 Architectural Models

Three basic models for distributed systems: [Coulouris 1988]

1. Workstation/Server: majority as of 1988.

2. Processor pool: users just have terminals.

3. Integrated: heterogeneous network of machines that may

perform both the role of server and the role of application
processor.

Amoeba is an example of a hybrid system that combines

characteristics of the first two models. Highly interactive or
graphical programs may be run on workstations, and other
programs may be run on the processor pool.

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 The Amoeba System Architecture

Four basic components:

1. Each user has a workstation running X Windows

(X11R6).

2. Pool of processors which are dynamically allocated

to users as required.

3. Specialized servers: file, directory, database, etc.

4. These components were connected to each other by a

fast LAN, and to the wide area network by a gateway.

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6
Micro-kernel
 Provides low-level memory management. Threads and allocate or de-
allocate segments of memory.
 Threads can be kernel threads or User threads which are a part of a
Process
 Micro-kernel provides communication between different threads
regardless of the nature or location of the threads
 RPC mechanism is carried out via client and server stubs. All
communication is RPC based in the Amoeba system
 Microkernel and Server Architecture

Microkernel Architecture: every machine runs a small, identical

piece of software called the kernel.

The kernel supports:

1. Process, communication, and object primitives.
2. Raw device I/O, and memory management.

Server Architecture: User space server processes are built on top

of the kernel.

Modular design:
1. For example, the file server is isolated from the kernel.
2. Users may implement a specialized file server.

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 Threads

Each process has its own address space, but may contain multiple
threads of control.

Each thread logically has its own registers, program counter, and
stack.

Each thread shares code and global data with all other threads in the
process.

For example, the file server utilizes threads.

Threads are managed and scheduled by the microkernel.

Both user and kernel processes are structured as collections of threads

communicating by RPCs.
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 Remote Procedure Calls

Threads within a single process communicate via shared memory.

Threads located in different processes use RPCs.

All interprocess communication in Amoeba is based on RPCs.

A client thread sends a message to a server thread, then blocks until

the server thread replies.

The details of RPCs are hidden by stubs. The Amoeba Interface

Language automatically generates stub procedures.

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Great effort was made to optimize performance of RPCs between a
client and server running as user processes on different machines.

1.1 msec from client RPC initiation until reply is received and client
unblocks.

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 Objects and Capabilities

•All services and communication are built around objects/capabilities.

•Object: an abstract data type.

•Each object is managed by a server process to which RPCs can
be sent.
•Each RPC specifies the object to be used, operation to be
performed, and parameters passed.

•During object creation, the server constructs a 128 bit value called a
“capability” and returns it to the caller.
•Subsequent operations on the object require the user to send its
capability to the server to both specify the object and prove that the
user has permission to manipulate the object.

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 128 bit Capability

The structure of a capability:

1. Server Port identifies the server process that manages the
object.
2. Object field is used by the server to identify the specific object
in question.
3. Rights field shows which of the allowed operations the holder
of a capability may perform.
4. Check Field is used for validating the capability.

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 Memory Management

When a process is executing, all of its segments are in memory.

No swapping or paging.

Amoeba can only run programs that fit in physical memory.

Advantage: simplicity and high performance.

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 Amoeba servers (outside the kernel)
 Underlying concept: the services (objects) they provide
 To create an object, the client does an RPC with appropriate server
 To perform operation, the client calls the stub procedure that builds a message
containing the object’s capability and then traps to kernel
 The kernel extracts the server port field from the capability and looks it up in the
cache to locate machine on which the server resides
 If no cache entry is found-kernel locates server by broadcasting
Directory Server

 File management and naming are separated.

 The Bullet server manages files, but not naming.
 A directory server manages naming.
 Function: provide mapping from ASCII names to capabilities.
 User presents a directory server with a ASCII name , capability and the
server then checks the capability corresponding to the name
 Each file entry in the directory has three protection domains
 Operations are provided to create and delete directories . The
directories are not immutable and therefore new entries can be added
to directory.
 User can access any one of the directory servers, if one is down it can
use others
Boot Server
 It provides fault tolerance to the system
 Check if the others severs are running or not – polls server processes
 A process interested in surviving crashes registers itself with the server
 If a server fails to respond to the Boot server, it declares it as dead
and arranges for a new processor on which the new copy of the
process is started
 The boot server is itself replicated to guard against its own failure
Bullet server
 File system is a collection of server process
 The file system is called a bullet server (fast: hence the name)
 Files are immutable
 Once file is created it cannot be changed, it can be deleted and new one created in its
place
 Server maintains a table with one entry per file.
 Files are stored contiguously on disk - Caches whole files contiguously in core.
 Usually, when a user program requests a file, the Bullet server will
send the entire file in a single RPC (using a single disk operation).
 Does not handle naming. Just reads and writes files according to their
capabilities.
 When a client process wants to read a file it send the capability for the file to server
which in turn extracts the object and finds the file using the object number
 Operations for managing replicated files in a consistent way are
provided.
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 Group Communication

One-to-Many Communication:

A single server may need to send a message to a group of

cooperating servers when a data structure is updated.

Amoeba provides a facility for reliable, totally-ordered group

communication.

All receivers are guaranteed to get all group messages in exactly

the same order.

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 Software Outside the Kernel

Additional software outside the kernel includes:

1. Compilers: C, Pascal, Modula 2, BASIC, and Fortran.

2. Orca for parallel programming.
3. Utilities modeled after UNIX commands.
4. UNIX emulation.
5. TCP/IP for Internet access.
6. X Windows.
7. Driver for linking into a SunOS UNIX kernel.

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Applications
 Use as a Program development environment-it has a partial UNIX
emulation library. Most of the common library calls like open, write,
close, fork have been emulated.
 Use it for parallel programming-The large number of processor pools
make it possible to carry out processes in parallel
 Use it in embedded industrial application as shown in the diagram
below
 Amoeba – Lessons Learned
After more than eight years of development and use, the researchers
assessed Amoeba. [Tanenbaum 1990, 1991]. Amoeba has
demonstrated that it is possible to build a efficient, high performance
distributed operating system.

Among the things done right were:

1.The microkernel architecture allows the system to evolve as needed.
2.Basing the system on objects.
3.Using a single uniform mechanism (capabilities) for naming and
protecting objects in a location independent way.
4.Designing a new, very fast file system.

Among the things done wrong were:

1. Not allowing preemption of threads.
2. Initially building a window system instead of using X Windows.
3. Not having multicast from the outset. 25
Future
 Desirable properties of Future systems
 Seamless distribution-system determines where computation excuet
and data resides. User unaware
 Worldwide scalability
 Fault Tolerance
 Self Tuning-system takes decision regarding the resource allocation,
replication, optimizing performance and resource usage
 Self configurations-new machines should be assimilated automatically
 Security
 Resource controls-users has some controls over resource location etc
A Company would not want its financial documents to be stored in a
location outside its network system
 References

[Coulouris 1988] Coulouris, George F., Dollimore, Jean:

Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design, 1988

[Tanenbaum 1990] Tanenbaum, A.S., Renesse, R. van, Staveren, H. van.,

Sharp, G.J., Mullender, S.J., Jansen, A.J., and Rossum, G. van:
"Experiences with the Amoeba Distributed Operating System,"
Commun. ACM, vol. 33, pp. 46-63, Dec. 1990

[Tanebaum 1991]
Tanenbaum, A.S., Kaashoek, M.F., Renesse, R. van, and Bal, H.:
"The Amoeba Distributed Operating System-A Status Report,"
Computer Communications, vol. 14, pp. 324-335, July/August 1991.

[Amoeba 1996]
The Amoeba Distributed Operating System,
http://www.cs.vu.nl/pub/amoeba/amoeba.html

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Chorus Distributed OS - Goals
 Research Project in INRIA (1979 – 1986)
 Separate applications from different suppliers running on different
operating systems
 need some higher level of coupling
 Applications often evolve by growing in size leading to distribution of
programs to different machines
 need for a gradual on-line evolution
 Applications grow in complexity
 need for modularity of the application to be be mapped onto the operating
system concealing the unnecessary details of distribution from the
application
Chorus – Basic Architecture
• Nucleus
 There is a general nucleus running on each machine
 Communication and distribution are managed at the lowest level
by this nucleus
 CHORUS nucleus implements the real time required by real time
applications
 Traditional operating systems like UNIX are built on top of the
Nucleus and use its basic services.
Chorus versions
 Chorus V0 (Pascal implementation)
 Actor concept - Alternating sequence of indivisible
execution and communication phases
 Distributed application as actors communicating by
messages through ports or groups of ports
 Nucleus on each site
 Chorus V1
 Multiprocessor configuration
 Structured messages, activity messages
 Chorus V2, V3 (C++ implementation)
 Unix subsystem (distant fork, distributed signals,
distributed files)
Nucleus Architecture
Chorus Nucleus
 Supervisor(machine dependent)
 dispatches interrupts, traps and exception given by hardware
 Real-time executive
 controls allocation of processes and provides synchronization and
scheduling
 Virtual Memory Manager
 manipulates the virtual memory hardware and and local memory
resources. It uses IPC to request remote date in case of page fault
 IPC manager
 provides asynchronous message exchange and RPC in a location
independent fashion.
Version V3 onwards, the actors , RPC and ports management
were made a part of the Nucleus functions
Chorus Architecture
 The Subsystems provide
applications with with
traditional operating
system services
 Nucleus Interface
 Provides direct access to
low-level services of the
CHORUS Nucleus
 Subsystem Interface
 e.g.. UNIX emulation
environment, CHORUS/MiX
 Thus, functions of an
operating system are split
into groups of services
provided by System Servers
(Subsystems)
 User libraries – e.g. “C”
 Chorus Architecture (cont.)
 System servers work together to form what is called the subsystem
 The Subsystem interface –
 implemented as a set of cooperating servers representing complex
operating system abstractions
 Note: the Nucleus interface Abstractions in the Chorus Nucleus
 Actor-collection of resources in a Chorus System.
 It defines a protected address space. Three types of actors-user(in user address
space), system and supervisor
 Thread
 Message (byte string addressed to a port)
 Port and Port Groups -
 A port is attached to one actor and allows the threads of that Actor to receive
messages to that port
 Region
 Actors, port and port groups have UIs
Actors
* trusted if the Nucleus allows to it perform sensitive Nucleus Operations
* privileged if allowed to execute privileged instructions.

User actors - not trusted and not privileged

System actors - trusted but not privileged
Supervisor actor – trusted and privileged
Actors ,Threads and Ports
 A site can have multiple actors
 Actor is tied to one site and its threads are always executed on that
site
 Physical memory and data of the thread on that site only
 Neither Actors nor threads can migrate to other sites.
 Threads communicate and synchronize by IPC mechanism
 However, threads in an actor share an address space
 can use shared memory for communication
 An Actor can have multiple ports.
 Threads can receive messages on all the ports.
 However a port can migrate from one actor to another
 Each Port has a logical and a unique identifier
Regions and Segments
 An actors address is divided into Regions
 A region of of an actor’s address space contains a portion of a segment
mapped to a given virtual address.
 Every reference to an address within the region behaves as a reference
to the mapped segment
 The unit of information exchanged between the virtual memory system
and the data providers is the segment
 Segments are global and are identified by capabilities(a unit of data
access control)
 A segment can be accessed by mapping (carried by Chorus IPC) to a
region or by explicitly calling a segment_read/write system call
Messages and Ports
 A message is a contiguous byte string which is logically copied
from the sender’s address space to the receiver’s address space
 Using coupling between large virtual memory management and
IPC large messages can be transferred using copy-on-write
techniques or by moving page descriptors
 Messages are addressed to PoRts and not to actors. The port
abstraction provides the necessary decoupling of the interface
of a service and its implementation
 When a port is created the Nucleus returns both a local
identifier and a Unique Identifier (UI) to name the port
Port and Port Groups
 Ports are grouped into Port Groups
 When a port group is created it is initially empty and ports can
be added or deleted to it.
 A port can be a part of more than one port group
 Port groups also have a UIs
Segment representation within a
Nucleus
 Nucleus manages a per-segment local cache of physical pages
 Cache contains pages obtained from mappers which is used to fulfill
requests of the same segment data
 Algorithms are required for the consistency of the cache with the
original copies
 Deferred copy techniques is used whereby the Nucleus uses the
memory management facilities to avoid performing unnecessary
copy operations
Chorus Subsystem
 A set of chorus actors that work together to export a unified application
programming interface are know as subsystems
 Subsystems like Chorus/MiX export a high-level operating system
abstractions such as process objects, process models and data
providing objects
 A portion of a subsystem is implemented as a system actor executing
in system space and a portion is implemented as user actor
 Subsystem servers communicate by IPC
 A subsystem is protected by means of system trap interface
CHORUS/MiX: Unix Subsystem
 Objectives: implement UNIX services, compatibility with existing
application programs, extension to the UNIX abstraction to distributed
environment, permit application developers to implement their own
services such as window managers
 The file system is fully distributed and file access is location
independent
 UNIX process is implemented as an Actor
 Threads are created inside the process/actor using the u_thread
interface.
 Note: these threads are different from the ones provided by the nucleus
 Signals to are either sent to a particular thread or to all the
threads in a process
Unix Server
 Each Unix Server is implemented as an Actor
 It is generally multithreaded with each request handled by a
thread
 Each server has one or more ports to which clients send requests
 To facilitate porting of device drivers from a UNIX kernel into
the CHORUS server, a UNIX kernel emulation emulation library
library is developed which is linked with the Unix device driver
code.
 Several types of servers can be distinguished in a subsystem: Process
Manager(PM), File Manager (FM), Device Manager (DM)
IPC Manager (IPCM)
Chorus/Mix: Unix with chorus
Process Manager (PM)
 It maps Unix process abstractions onto CHORUS
abstractions
 It implements entry points used by processes to
access UNIX services
 For exec, kill etc the PM itself satisfies the request
 For open, close, fork etc it invokes other subsystem
servers to handle the request
 PM accesses the Nucleus services through the system
calls
 For other services it uses other interfaces like File
manager, Socket Manager, Device Manager etc
UNIX process
 A Unix process can be view as single thread of control mapped into a
single chorus actor whose Unix context switch is managed by the
Process Manager

 PM also attaches control port to each Unix process actor. A control

thread is dedicated to receive and process all messages on this port
 For multithreading the UNIX system context switch is divide into two
subsystems: process context and u_thread context
Unix process as a Chorus Actor
File Manager (FM)
 It provides disk level UNIX file system and acts as
mappers to the Chorus Nucleus
 FM implements services required by CHORUS virtual
memory management such as backing store.