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The DUNIX distributed operating system

Author:

Ami LitmanAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, Volume 22, Issue 1

Pages 42 - 51

https://doi.org/10.1145/43921.43924

Published: 03 January 1988 Publication History

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Abstract

DUNIX is an operating system that integrates several computers, connected by a packet switching network, into a single UNIX machine. As far as the users and their software can tell, the system is a single large computer running UNIX. This illusion is created by cooperation of the computers' kernels. The kernels' mode of operation is novel. The software is procedure call oriented. The code that implements a specific system call (e.g., open) does not know whether the object in question (the file) is local or remote. That uniformity makes the kernel small and easy to maintain. The system behaves gracefully under subcomponents' failures. Users which do not have objects (files, processes, tty, etc) in a given computer are not disturbed when that computer crashes. The system administrator may switch a disk from a "dead" computer to a healthy one, and remount the disk under the original path-name. After the switch, users may access files in that disk via the same old names. DUNIX exhibits surprisingly high performance. For a compilation benchmark, DUNIX is faster than 4.2 BSD, even if in the DUNIX case all the files in question are remote. Currently, in Bell Communications Research we have an installation running DUNIX over five DEC VAX computers connected by an Ethernet. This installation speaks TCP/IP and is on the Internet network.

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Clark HMcMillin B(1990)DAWGS - A Distributed Compute Server Utilizing Idle WorkstationsProceedings of the Fifth Distributed Memory Computing Conference, 1990.10.1109/DMCC.1990.556276(732-741)Online publication date: 1990
https://doi.org/10.1109/DMCC.1990.556276
Segal MFrieder O(1989)Dynamically updating distributed software: supporting change in uncertain and mistrustful environmentsProceedings. Conference on Software Maintenance - 198910.1109/ICSM.1989.65219(254-261)Online publication date: 1989
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSM.1989.65219
Frieder OLitman ASegal M(1989)DUNIX: Distributed operating systems education via experimentationMicroprocessing and Microprogramming10.1016/0165-6074(89)90155-527:1-5(811-818)Online publication date: Aug-1989
https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-6074(89)90155-5
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Index Terms

The DUNIX distributed operating system
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software organization and properties
    1. Contextual software domains
      1. Operating systems
    2. Software system structures
      1. Distributed systems organizing principles

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cover image ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review

ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review Volume 22, Issue 1

Jan., 1988

71 pages

ISSN:0163-5980

DOI:10.1145/43921

Editor:
William M. Waite
University of Colorado, Boulder

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 03 January 1988

Published in SIGOPS Volume 22, Issue 1

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Clark HMcMillin B(1990)DAWGS - A Distributed Compute Server Utilizing Idle WorkstationsProceedings of the Fifth Distributed Memory Computing Conference, 1990.10.1109/DMCC.1990.556276(732-741)Online publication date: 1990
https://doi.org/10.1109/DMCC.1990.556276
Segal MFrieder O(1989)Dynamically updating distributed software: supporting change in uncertain and mistrustful environmentsProceedings. Conference on Software Maintenance - 198910.1109/ICSM.1989.65219(254-261)Online publication date: 1989
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSM.1989.65219
Frieder OLitman ASegal M(1989)DUNIX: Distributed operating systems education via experimentationMicroprocessing and Microprogramming10.1016/0165-6074(89)90155-527:1-5(811-818)Online publication date: Aug-1989
https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-6074(89)90155-5
Bugli Innocenti E(1988)A distributed and transport environment for software engineering built on networking facilities: the PCTE distribution service[1988] Proceedings. Workshop on the Future Trends of Distributed Computing Systems in the 1990s10.1109/FTDCS.1988.26676(33-37)Online publication date: 1988
https://doi.org/10.1109/FTDCS.1988.26676

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Recommendations

Experiences with the Amoeba distributed operating system

Functional specialization in distributed operating systems

Autonomy and interdependence in the DUNIX system

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