Reducing kernel development complexity in distributed environments

Abstract

Setting up generic and fully transparent distributed services for clusters implies complex and tedious kernel developments. More flexible approaches such as user-space libraries are usually preferred with the drawback of requiring application recompilation. A second approach consists in using specific kernel modules (such as FUSE in Gnu/Linux system) to transfer kernel complexity into user space. In this paper, we present a new way to develop kernel distributed services for clusters by using a cluster wide consistent data management service. This system, entitled kDDM for "kernel Distributed Data Management", offers flexible kernel mechanisms to transparently manage remote accesses, cache and coherency. We show how kDDM simplifies distributed kernel developments by presenting the design and the implementation of a service as complex as a fully symmetric distributed file system. The innovative approach of kDDM has the potential to boost the development of distributed kernel services because it relieves the developers of the burden of dealing with distributed protocols and explicit data transfers. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.