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Infostructure Directions: Technology and Architecture. "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.” TEG -NDC SysMgt Retreat- 23 Jul 01. Rejected "Road" Themes. The Road Ahead -Bill Gates Every day is a Winding Road -Sheryl Crow
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Infostructure Directions: Technology and Architecture "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.” TEG -NDC SysMgt Retreat- 23 Jul 01
Rejected "Road" Themes • The Road Ahead -Bill Gates • Every day is a Winding Road -Sheryl Crow • The Long and Winding Road -Beatles • What a long strange trip it's been -Grateful Dead • Embryionic Journey -Jefferson Airplane • Endless Road -Hoyt Axton • Carefree Highway -Gordon Lightfoot
Closer... • What’s Goin’ On -Marvin Gayeor • What's Going On -Santana
Bingo! • Without A Klugh -Michael Powers
Topics • Architectural foundations • Architectural evolution/trends • Technology trends • Project priorities • UFOs and their prevention
System Architecture Goals • Reliable • Effective • Efficient • Secure • Manageable
Architectural Context: Outside-In Design… • Desktop: • HW • OS • Local apps • Network services • Backroom… • Front-end servers (e.g. compute, web) • Back-end servers (e.g. file, transaction, DBMS) • Support servers (e.g. DNS, Kerberos)
Baseline Apps • Personal productivity (e.g. MS Office) • Email • Web • Calendar • Streaming/On-demand A/V • Collaboration/conferencing
Fedex Application Requirements VR HD videoconf HD-VoD VideoConf VoD MM-IM BW SAN Web NFS/SMB DBMS Text-IM Calendar Email Latency
Architectural Choices(Where’s the network?What to cache?) Display Client App Server App FileSys/ DBMS Disk Cache Cache Cache Cache Cache
Architectural Evolution • Text terminal (timesharing) • PC as terminal • Client-Server • X terminal (GUI timesharing) • Web • p2p • asp/.net
Scaling Strategies • It’s about managing complexity • Optimum number of boxes? • Divide and conquer (airplanes and fault zones) • Reducing contention for shared resources • Design for diagnosis
Architecture Issues • Whither Peer-to-Peer? • Commodity vs. data center disk • Backup: isolating the weak link • Thin clients: X-ng vs. mini-PC vs. handheld • Debugability • Simplicity • e.g. unification of servers/services, accounts/Ids • Security/disaster recovery • PKI, server sanctuaries, SPoF studies, ECI
Hardware Trends • Intel chaos for another year • (e.g. 845 DDR chipset not until 1Q02) • AMD coming on strong, but behind on .13 micron chips • Peripheral stagnation: - builtin firewire, USB 2.0, Device Bay, DVI LCD, HD-DVD • PCI successor: Infiniband?? • Disk drives: SCSI, IDE, S-ATA, or ?? • DVD burners: DVD+RW, DVD-RW, or DVD-RAM ? • Handhelds coming on strong • Thin clients??
Appliances/Thin Clients • Specific use (e.g. Internet radio): • Yes, but if price low enough • Web surfing appliance (e.g. eVilla): • Too expensive/limited compared to g.p. PC • Thin clients have most merit where reduced function is a feature; i.e. business
Network Trends • IP/Ethernet continues to win • 10GigE coming soon • Multicast, QoS, and IPv6 are hot topics • Wireless LAN: here now, 11b obsolete soon • Wireless WAN: busted business models
OS trends • Win XP: advanced features (e.g. IPv6) • but some troubling trends (activation, smart tags) • Linux: solid in the backroom. Desktop? • Where's Mozilla? StarOffice 6.0? Multimedia Apps? • Mac OS X: niche as long as it's PPC only • BeOS: eVilla is their last hope
Digital Rights Management • Hot topic • Hollywood is in control • May constrain legitimate use • Questionable impact on piracy
Project Categories/Drivers • Growth • Environment changes: HW, SW, Middleware • New service requirements • Security/robustness/disaster recovery • Working smarter vs. harder • Architectural simplification e.g. consolidation • Improved tools, e.g. canaries, FPTs
Priorities • Reliability • Function and failure isolation • Complexity reduction… except: • SPoF reduction implies more complexity • Manageability: making it easier to... • bring up new systems • do routine mtce • accts, s/w, disk mgt, backups • know about problems; troubleshoot
UFOs and their Prevention • Divide-and-conquer architecture • Canaries for advance warning • Finger-Pointing Tools for problem isolation • Communication mechanisms • Capturing user experiences • Coordinating events • Coordinating experiments • Reporting status, new data • E2E PI
SysMgt lessons from TMI • Busted valve • Had failed 11 times elsewhere; NRC mum • Jammed phones • Designers couldn’t talk to operators (users) • Hydrogen bubble scare • Wrong formula... but where were the sensors?
The Zen of Troubleshooting • one seeing > 1000 tellings • one doing > 1000 seeings • one sniffing > 1000 speculations