15-440 - Distributed Systems

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Project 2: Synchronization and Replication in File Stack Distributed File System

Interim Design Report Due Date: 10 Oct 2011, by 11:59pm

Final Project Due Date: 20 Oct 2011, by 11:59pm

• Project description can be found in Project 2 Handout.
• Download Project 2 Starter Code. This is the framework that you will be modifying. Unzip the file. Read the handout and README document for using the code. For the complete documentation of the framework, read the following (preferably in the same order)
  • "Design and implementation guidelines" section in the project handout.
  • javadoc of the starter code. Note: make docs-all command creates javadoc of starter code.
  • Once you are familiar with the conceptual design of the project, then go over Project 2 Implementation Notes.

  File System in User Space (FUSE) driver for the project

  Here is an utility to test your project.

  FUSE (abbreviation for Filesystem in Userspace) to enable File Stack as a regular file system. It basically allows file systems to be implemented in user space (similar to the one our students are currently developing) to be integrated as a Unix file system -- without modifying the kernel of the operating system. You can then use Unix commands (e.g., ls) to interact with the file system, as well as POSIX libraries to access the file system from any programming language.

  Download FUSE for enabling your Distributed File System here.

  NOTE: It is not mandatory to test your code using FUSE, but we recommend it

  Students should unzip the fuse/ directory (included in the archive) into their project directory, so it becomes a subdirectory of the main project directory. This is the easiest way to get the driver to build (otherwise they have to edit a variable in the Makefile).

  Students who are ready to try the driver should read the README in this archive. If you want to know how the code works, the documentation can be generated by typing "make docs". It is best to start with on the Doxygen side, in doxygen/html/index.html.

  Thanks to Anton Bachin for providing this great add-on.