CSIT431 Introduction to Operating Systems Group List Spring 2002

(Penalty for Group/Project Change after April 10th: 5 Marks)

First Report:5 Marks Due:April 25th

(Sections Required in First Report: Title, Group, Summary, Introduction, Your Approach)

List of Suggested Project Topics

(Please choose a topic or suggest a topic yourself. In any case, inform me by April 4^th. I will follow the first come first serve policy for assigning projects from this list)

(a)   Setting up PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine) on two experimental Linux machines (pizza and odin in the lab) Refer to http://www.netlib.org/pvm3/book/node1.html for more information on PVM. Set up at least two example programs and develop at least one example application yourself

(b)   Setting up MPICH (Message Passing Interface  implementation for portable MPI environments) on two experimental machines. Refer to http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/mpi/ for more information. Demonstrate the correct working by setting up at least two applications

(c)   Using Bonnie and at least two other tools available from http://www.acnc.com/04_02.html to test the disk performance of Solaris, Linux and W2k workstations. If you do not find a freeware tool to run on Windows platform, you can do the testing on a SGI workstation. You must set identical I/O volumes in order to compare the speeds.

(d)   Study of the current trends in workstations clustering with a case study of at least one specific configuration

(e)   Detailed study report of the security loopholes in the departmental Linux servers and a list of suggested steps to incease the security. (WARNING: Do not use any network jamming test.)  Suggest the most appropriate secure environments for remote login. Explore and document the reaction of the server to buffer overrun type of intrusions. Determine all ports through which an intrusion can occur and suggest remedies. Try to enter via daemons and record the session showing success or failure.

(f)     A detailed study of garbage collection algorithms that reclaim memory space. This report should also highlight the definition and discovery of memory leaks and discuss solutions proposed. At least 3 specific algorithms should be discussed. If possible, include description of a memory monitor tool and its report after setting it up on a server

(g)   Write a monitoring tool for the departmental web server. This tool will monitor the server for an extended period of time and produce a report of interest to Tom Clark (Send an email to tclark@cs.fredonia.edu) to learn  more). Some interesting statistics could be the average load per hour in terms of CPU usage, number of connections open, memory usage, number of processes running per unit time and most frequently downloaded pages.

(h)   Set up Nachos with threads and IPC support. Carry out the original assignments that are part of the Nachos system as well as one additional assignment prescribed by your instructor (See textbook website for more information)

(i)     Set up BACI and work on at least one instructor specified project in BACI. (See textbook website for more information)

Project Report Guidelines

Group Formation
(Projects can be done by students in CSIT431 by forming groups of 1,2 or 3 members. Last date for group formation is Friday March 15th. If you wish to be included in a group, send me an email by March 14th. The practical projects may be carried out on Solaris, Linux or Windows environments)

Project Requirements

DEADLINE FOR REPORT, VERBAL DISCUSSION AND DEMO IS MAY 13th

1. For study projects, submit a 6-7 A4/letter pages long report, typed in Times New Roman 14 font size single spaced format. The number of diagrams cannot exceed 3. Diagrams must fit in less than 1/3rd of a page. Verbal discussion of the report will be conducted on a mutually convenient date within next couple of days (including weekend)
   
2. For practical projects, submit a minimum of 4 pages long report as per format outlined above. The demo must be given before May 13th (including weekend if necessary). Verbal discussion is required and must be completed by May 13th.
   
3. All reports must have a separate title page that does not count in the total number of pages. This page should show the title of the project followed by names of group members with email addresses. The report begins on next page with summary (maximum 50 words) followed by introduction of the problem, actual sections, experimental setup description, any results and then conclusion, followed by references if any.