Thursday Nov 05, 2009
The 9th Fallacy of Distributed Computing
While working recently with colleagues and customers to define and
architect public and private "cloud computing" systems and to explore
the technical challenges of implementing such systems, I was reminded
of Peter Deutsch's observation in 1994 of the Seven Fallacies of Distributed Computing along with the Eight Fallacy added in 1996 by James Gosling:
- The network is reliable.
- Latency is zero.
- Bandwidth is infinite.
- The network is secure.
- Topology doesn't change.
- There is one administrator.
- Transport cost is zero.
- The network is homogeneous.
Although others have suggested additional fallacies, I think a
critical cloud computing issue clearly suggests what the ninth one
should be:
- 9. Location is irrelevant.
By suggesting this fallacy I mean the assumption that where computing
happens and data resides is not an issue in today's massively
connected global Internet. With sufficient connectivity and bandwidth,
you might assume that outsourcing your computing services, possibly even
outside your home country, is simply a matter of economics. This
is clearly false. While end users of public cloud based applications may
not be aware that or even care that their computation is occurring
on some randomly and dynamically assigned set of virtualized servers
which may change even as they use them, nor be concerned about precisely
what storage devices are dynamically assigned to host their data,
nevertheless these resources do indeed have physical presences which
tie them to specific locations that have geographic and jurisdictional
characteristics.
The overall stability and reliability of a cloud provider data
center depends in part on its geographic location - its proximity to
sufficient power and cooling resources, and its safety from natural
and man-made disasters. That's why Google has built data centers
close to power generating facilities and why Switch Communications built
its huge SuperNAP center in geologically stable and meteorologically
quiet Las Vegas.
But even more critical than physical location is the legal jurisdiction
in which your computation occurs and where your data resides. Laws
governing privacy, data ownership, intellectual property,
monitoring, and auditing vary from state to state in the US and globally
from one country to another. And pinning
down the exact location of a global distributed IT service is difficult.
In the event of legal disputes over
liability or disclosure issues, where will cases be tried?
Many such jurisdictional questions remain unanswered, and some countries
are reacting with understandable caution about sharing global
computing resources. Canada, for example, has prohibited the use of
US data centers for certain government projects due to concerns about
the provisions of the US Patriot Act, and India is considering legislation
requiring IT business services to originate within the country.
So, if you haven't already frightened yourself examining the myriad
cloud security issues, google for "cloud computing" with "jurisdiction"
for some additional reading material. You'll find that, as with real estate,
location is anything but irrelevant.
Some references:
Cloud Computing Brings New Legal Challenges
The Determination of Jurisdiction in Grid and Cloud Service Level Agreements
Legal Implications of Cloud Computing
The Boundaries of Cloud Computing: World, Nation or Jurisdiction?
Tuesday Jul 07, 2009
- The Age of American Unreason, by Susan Jacoby
- Why so many Americans are stupid and proud of it.
- The Day We Found the Universe, by Marcia Bartusiak
- It wasn't so long ago that humans still believed in their centrality in the universe. Those fuzzy little blobs in the sky...what were they? Clouds of gas? Evolving planetary systems within the only galaxy in the universe? No, they were galaxies like our own Milky Way. In fact, there were BILLIONS of them, and we're not so special anymore. Hubble and others finally figured it out.
- The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories, by Ernest Hemingway
- Never read much Hemingway, and having recently written my own book I thought I'd read a bit about other writers. Hemingway got the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, for his "...straightforward prose, his spare dialogue, and his predilection for understatement". Hmmm...not that I could see from Snows. Perhaps I should (re)read The Old Man and the Sea...
- ...until then, Ray Bradbury will still top my list of the world's best authors.
- Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle, by Matthew Symonds
- Getting to know Sun's future CEO
- Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
- Yes, read all 135 chapters, including all the exposition on whales and whaling life, and all the biblical and mythological allusions. Interesting, but tough to get through. Can't beat that final chapter however!
Monday Jun 01, 2009
OpenSolaris 2009.06 is now available for deployment from the desktop to datacenter, check out the latest features at OpenSolaris.org:
- Network Virtualization with Crossbow
- Turn any host into a SCSI target with COMSTAR
- Host virtual guests using xVM Hypervisor or LDoms
- SPARC® support for Distro Constructor, Auto Install, and Snap
- Intel Xeon 5500 processor support with deep power management
- MySQL and PHP DTrace Probes in the WebStack
And by the way, our book, Pro OpenSolaris, is still perfectly relevant, since it focuses on key OpenSolaris features that have not changed since the earlier 2008.11 release.
Tuesday Apr 21, 2009
Available this week:
Pro OpenSolaris (Apress)
Apress' Pro OpenSolaris is the second English language book to be
published specifically about Sun Microsystems' OpenSolaris open
source operating system. The first was the comprehensive,1000-page,
OpenSolaris Bible published by Wiley in March 2009. That book
purposely covered all aspects of OpenSolaris for those with only
basic familiarity with Solaris and UNIX as well as for those with
greater administration and developer experience; it reviewed desktop
tools, networking, shell programming, and system administration
along with the unique features of OpenSolaris.
Pro OpenSolaris, published in April 2009 and based on the OpenSolaris
2008.11 release, assumes the reader is already comfortable with the
user and development environments of GNOME and Linux; it focuses
primarily on the key OpenSolaris features that should be learned
and exploited for Web development. It includes an extensive chapter
detailing a sample Web stack project based on the zones, ZFS,
security, and SMF topics introduced in the preceding chapters. The
book also highlights relevant online references and resources for
further learning. Although all of the information about OpenSolaris
is available on myriad Web sites, books such as Pro OpenSolaris
give you a roadmap and recommended sequence of what to learn first.
It also strongly emphasizes that open source solutions can be
effectively hosted on OpenSolaris as well as on Linux.
Pro OpenSolaris (Amazon)
Pro OpenSolaris (Barnes & Noble)
Monday Jul 07, 2008
OpenSolaris reported second to Ubuntu in DistroWatch Page Hit Ranking.[Read More]
Tuesday May 20, 2008
OpenSolaris at the Source
No, not the source code...but the source of learning
about operating systems: university CS courses.
Recently I presented Real World Observability Tools in Computer Science Education at the ACM's
SIGCSE08 meeting in Portland, OR.
Sun was one of the symposium's Platinum Sponsors; I attended both as a Sun system engineer who specializes in OpenSolaris and as a university CS educator who teaches a graduate course in operating systems based on OpenSolaris.
My course was in progress when I presented it at the symposium; it's completed now. I focused on two major topics: OS Observability, and Virtualization. For the observability topic we studied DTrace in OpenSolaris along with other OS tools such as Linux SystemTap. For virtualization, we studied Xen, OpenSolaris containers, and Linux features such as vServers. In general, such topics are not covered in depth in university CS curricula.
Most of the students were in the MS in CS program at GMU, although there were a few in the CS PhD program as well. The students' backgrounds were quite varied; some were already experienced and employed in highly technical IT work, some were only beginning their CS graduate studies and careers. I required the students to do two projects, one on observability and one on virtualization. Most of the projects, but not all, centered on OpenSolaris features and issues; I allowed students to choose the specific areas of investigation within the two broad topic areas.
I asked several students for permission to share their projects in order to illustrate the variety and utility of such assignments in learning about operating systems in general and about OpenSolaris in particular:
As you can see, providing students with state-of-the-art open source tools inspires them to investigate real world problems and to create interesting solutions. And, since I insisted on inclusion and fair coverage of observability and virtualization technologies other than those found in OpenSolaris, students were encouraged to report on the good, bad, and ugly of these technologies.
Student feedback about this course has been very positive, although many students expresed a preference for focusing in greater detail on just one of the two topics. I'll propose such a change for the next offering of this course; for the DTrace topic, I would follow the excellent example being set by the OpenSolaris-based curriculum currently being taught in China, as was presented at SIGCSE08.
Friday Feb 15, 2008
Programmers know the value of the '*' wildcard symbol. And for
many years technology trade press writers and journalists have also
employed it as a useful shorthand notation for a variety of terms.
One that comes to mind is '*NIX', generally meaning "all the different
implementations of UNIX" such as AIX, IRIX, and even those not
ending in 'IX' like HP-UX and Linux.
Well, here's another one: '*AMP'. I'm sure you've heard of or even
used 'LAMP' Web solutions: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. In fact,
a very large fraction of Web sites use these four technologies.
But any of the four letters can be replaced with a wildcard,
including the 'L'. Think '*AMP'. But what could possibly replace
the '*'?
How about 'S' for 'Solaris'? Or 'O' for
'OpenSolaris'? Because
that first letter represents the operating system foundation that
supports the other three. And all those useful AMP applications
are not only available but run fine, or even better, on other letters
of the alphabet. Like 'S' and 'O'.
And now, to make using either of those two letters even easier, the
'AMP' stack, as it is generally called, is integrated with and
optimized for Solaris, on Intel, AMD, and SPARC systems. Get the
record-setting
'AMP' stack for Solaris
along with all your favorite
developer tools like Ruby, Squid, and Java. Build leading edge Web
2.0 solutions with the
Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08
release, which includes Sun's new xVM virtualization technologies.
So expand your view of '*AMP'. Think of Sun's continuing and
innovative support for open source solutions. Oh, and more about
that third letter, 'M'. Check out the
news about how Sun has enhanced its level of support for your
favorite open source database software.
Friday Nov 02, 2007
I received and immediately read my November 07 subscription edition
of Linux Journal several days ago. But Jon 'Maddog' Hall's rant
about Sun has been bugging me since I read it...I must respond.
Before I do, I should note that I worked as a UNIX specialist with
Jon at Digital Equipment Corporation from 1989 through 1995, back
when "Open" meant "UNIX", and us UNIX folks at DEC took a lot of
heat from the VMS crowd that ran the company. I'm sure I don't
need to review the history and demise of DEC nor point out its
failures to respond to customer requirements. Jon was a Linux
expert even back then, porting it to DEC's Alpha processor.
In '95 I joined Sun; Jon's career after DEC led him through
Linux-oriented companies like VA Linux and SGI to his current role
as head of Linux International. Our paths have crossed a few times
in recent years. In April '05 Jon gave a talk promoting open source
HPC software at a Beowulf cluster user group meeting. I attended
the meeting in part to participate and contribute to the group, but
moreso for that specific meeting I wanted to show him Sun's plans
to open source Solaris. This was a huge step for Sun, not lightly
considered, and admittedly littered with numerous technical and
marketing challenges. Jon glanced at the plan and summarily dismissed
it, commenting "it's not GPL".
Now from someone who claims to "believe in free and open source
software", this was a rather disappointing reaction, but one that
is common among the GPL and Linux fundamentalists. Essentially,
Jon said at that '05 meeting and again in his article that there
is only One True Open Source Way - GPL and Linux. All others are
infidels to be ignored or derided for their efforts. Jon adds
insult to injury by dragging up old news of Sun's past offenses:
the change from BSD to System 5, the admittedly wrongheaded
decommitment from Solaris on Intel five years ago (and its subsequent
very successful reinstatement), and the nonissue of processor endian
differences. Nothing confuses customer decision-making more than
comparing favored new technogy with a competitor's old technology.
Or ignoring significant progress in bringing innovative technology
into the open source communities, such as ZFS, DTrace, and OpenSolaris
itself, which Jon barely acknowledges. But then he's not an Open
Source guy, he's (and I quote), "a Linux Guy". There is a difference.
I freely admit that Sun's marketing messages around open source
software in general and about OpenSolaris in particular have had a
rough time evolving and clarifying. But, as Ian Murdock recently
pointed out to the large and growing OpenSolaris community, in less
than two years Sun has open sourced its crown jewel, Solaris, opened
its engineering and development processes, created a large, active,
and contributing developer community, and now has a working binary
distribution of OpenSolaris that has received almost universal
acclaim. "Dead reckoning" from Sun's position three years ago has
brought users and developers a real choice of open source operating
systems. This contradicts the dogma that the only true open source
platform is Linux. Users of open source applications can build
their solutions on a choice of open source operating systems; some
of these OS's are better than others; I guess choice is a heretical
idea.
Jon also criticizes Sun for preferring and promoting its own technology,
as if this were uncommon behavior for a profit-making corporation.
Even Red Hat, which promotes the "Open Source = Linux" philosophy,
wants Linux users to turn to their commercial product when they
need mission critical support. Sun cooperates, for the mutual
benefit of itself and its customers, with Red Hat, Novell/SuSE, HP,
IBM, and yes, even with Microsoft. But having a bias towards one's
own products is hardly unique to Sun, and cannot reasonably be
written off as "bait-and-switch".
So, Jon, in the interest of promoting a more ecumenical open source
world, I suggest that you sit down with us infidels and see what
we are doing on behalf of the end users and developers. And remember
that neither Rome, Linux, nor OpenSolaris were built in a day. You
probably won't be converted, but you may become a bit more tolerant.
Monday Feb 26, 2007
Hmmm...now that I've got your attention, and you're
wondering how someone with my job description could
utter such blasphemy...
...use OpenSolaris! Start your proof-of-concept projects,
experiments, learning experiences, creative solution
ideas with OpenSolaris. Interact with the OpenSolaris
user and developer communities. Learn directly from the
Sun engineers and other contributors who are building
future Solaris releases. Join an OpenSolaris User Group
and share ideas and solutions.
Some of the new technologies that started life in
OpenSolaris such as ZFS, BrandZ, and Xen will show up
in a commercial release of Solaris (ZFS is a good example
of this process; it was introduced for production use in
the Solaris 10 7/06 update release). When they do, you'll
be ready to deploy them if you've taken advantage of the
early access that OpenSolaris provides.
Go to http://opensolaris.org to get started. Download
OpenSolaris and install it on your laptop, desktop PC,
or a spare Intel, AMD, or SPARC server. Set up your
system multi-boot, or run OpenSolaris virtualized using
Parallels or VMware. Try out DTrace, Containers, Trusted
Extensions, and other key technologies. You'll enjoy
and benefit from the experience!
Tuesday Feb 13, 2007
Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc. announces two events of interest to the
open source community in the Washington DC area:
"Open Your Mind to Open Source " Online Web Seminar, Wednesday,
February 21, 2007, 2:00PM Eastern Time. Visit
http://openyourmindtoday.com/web-seminar.php
to sign up. This Webinar will highlight Sun's ongoing contributions to
open source solutions and to the growing open source developer community.
Inaugural meeting of the Capital Region Open Solaris User Group,
Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 3:30PM. Visit
http://opensolaris.org/os/community/os_user_groups/crosug/
for details. The Capital Region OpenSolaris User Group welcomes all
application developers, system administrators, and end users interested
in open source applications and operating systems. We encourage the
study and use of OpenSolaris in the National Capital Area by government
agencies, private industry, and academia.
Bookmark http://openyourmindtoday.com/ to stay informed about Sun's
open source events and programs, and visit
http://developers.sun.com/solaris/downloads/solexpdev/
for a complete OpenSolaris development environment.
Tuesday Feb 13, 2007
Harry Foxwell is a Principal Engineer for Sun Microsystems Federal
division in the Washington DC area, where he is responsible
for solutions consulting and customer education on Solaris and OpenSolaris,
open source software, virtualization technologies, and
cloud computing.
He has worked for Sun Microsystems since 1995. Prior to that he worked
for 6 years as a UNIX and Internet specialist for Digital Equipment
Corporation; he has worked with UNIX systems since 1979. He also
maintains Sun's internal website of Linux technical information and has
been a Linux user since 1995; he has been influential in developing and
promoting Sun's Linux, open source, and x86 strategy and messages. He is coauthor of
two Sun BluePrints: Slicing and Dicing Servers: A Guide to Virtualization
and Containment Technologies, Sun BluePrints Online, October 2005, and
The Sun BluePrints Guide to Solaris Containers: Virtualization in the
Solaris Operating System, Sun BluePrints Online, October 2006, and
author of the book Pro OpenSolaris.
He received his doctorate in Information Techology in 2003
from George Mason University (Fairfax, VA), and has since taught
graduate courses at GMU in Operating Systems, Computer Architecture, Computer
Security, and in Electronic
Commerce.
Harry is also a Vietnam veteran; he served as a platoon sergeant in the
US Army's 1st Infantry Division in 1968-1969.
See more info here
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