Assignment title: Information
FOUNDATIONS OF DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
Assignment # 2
Replication
Aim:
The purpose of this assignment is to exemplify and explore some important issues of
replication. This assignment requires an understanding of the basics of remote procedure
calling and replication.
Method:
students will attempt this assignment individually.
Submission:
What to submit
● A clear and brief description of what you did, how your program works.
● The source code.
Submission format
You may submit one .zip archive with all your files.
Submission method:
Submission is through Blackboard.
In Assignment 1, we have implemented a Tram Tracking service using a model similar to the one
shown in the following diagram:In this assignment you will extend the Assignment 1 model above to support active replication . For
that purpose, this assignment requires you to add:
a) Three Replica Manager (RM) for the server component that tracks locations of trams and
b) A server Front End (FE) with which Tram clients will communicate using RMI. The FE will
forward remote method calls to all available RMs and forward results back to Tram clients using
RMI.
The new system architecture is shown in the following diagram:
Front End (FE) hides replication management from the client, communicates with one or more
Replica Managers, provides replication transparency. Each RM is a replication of the Tram Tracking
server, process incoming requests independently but identically.
System requirements:
● The Trams will only communicate with the server Front End via RMI using the Remote
interface shown in the diagram above.
● The system consists of three Replica Managers. Each RM is a replication of the Tram
Tracking server to provide communication with server FE via RMI using the same Remote
interface shown in the diagram above.
o In this assignment, FE and RMs are all running on localhost, but at different ports (in
reality, they can run on different servers having different IP addresses and ports)
● The FE must always be running and at least one RM will be running at any given time to
provide fault tolerance.
● When a Tram makes a remote method call to the server Front End:
1. FE will first call a listTramService() method to find out which RM is running. The
results of this listTramService() call should also be printed out on the Console of the
FE, for example: RM1 on | RM2 off | RM3 on.
2. For each RM that is running, the FE will call the corresponding remote method on that
RM, passing the input Message object and receiving a return Message object from that
RM. Then the FE will forward that returned Message object to the Tram client. All of
this will be performed using RMI as shown in the above diagram.
● While the system is running, at most 2 RMs can be killed and the system should continue
simulating the tram movement as usual.What to demonstrate
Demos will be running in Week 11 and 12 in the labs. No concurrency control needs to be
implemented, so users can interfere with each other's operations in a way that leads to error
conditions, as allowed by the Unix file system.
You need to demonstrate the system with one server FE, three RMs and several Trams
running at the same time. You will need to show service continuity in presence of failure:
two RMs will be killed and the system should continue simulating the tram movement.
The End