( Latest Revision -- February 25, 2003 )

Course Description
for Operating Systems II: CS 4750

"An elephant is a mouse with an operating system."

TERM: Spring 2003

CLASS INFO FROM SCHEDULE:
21965 #CS 4750 001 Operating Systems II Lec 3.0 Tu-Th 11:15-12:42 P-113 2
INSTRUCTOR: John Sarraille, Professor of Computer Science

OFFICE: P-286, Professional Schools Building, Cal State Stanislaus

OFFICE HOURS: Tu-Th 08:30-09:30, Th 12:50-15:50, or by appointment (Office hours commence on Feb 13 and end on May 22.)

E-MAIL: john@ishi.csustan.edu

HOMEPAGE: http://www.cs.csustan.edu/~john/jsHomepage.html

PREREQUISITE:

It is important that you be adequately prepared for taking this course, CS 4750. Check with me if you have not passed: COURSE OBJECTIVES: REQUIRED TEXTS:

  1. Unix Internals: the new frontiers, 1/e ; written by Uresh Vahalia ; published by Prentice Hall, 1995 ; ISBN 0-13-101908-2.

  2. UNIX System Administration Handbook, 3/e ; written by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, and Trent H. Hein ; published by Prentice Hall, 2000 ; ISBN 0-13-020601-6

RECOMMENDED READING:

  1. UNIX in a Nutshell: System V Edition, 3rd Edition ; written by Arnold Robbins ; published by O'Reilly and Associates, 1999 ; ISBN 1-56592-427-4

  2. UNIX System V: A Practical Guide, 3/E ; written by Mark G. Sobell ; published by Addison-Wesley, 1994 ; ISBN 0-8053-7566-X

  3. Advanced Unix Programming, 2/E ; written by Marc J. Rochkind ; published by Prentice Hall PTR (but not yet) ; ISBN (none yet)

  4. Operating System Concepts, 6th Edition, 2001 ; written by Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin, and Greg Gagne ; published by Wiley, 2001 ; ISBN 0-471-41743-2

  5. Operating Systems Principles ; written by Lubomir F. Bic and Alan C. Shaw ; published by Prentice Hall, 2002 ; ISBN 0-13-026611-6

  6. Modern Operating Systems, 2/E ; written by Andrew S. Tanenbaum ; published by Prentice Hall, 2001 ; ISBN 0-13-031358-0

  7. Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms ; written by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and Maarten van Steen ; published by Prentice Hall, 2001 ; ISBN 0-13-088893-1

  8. Real-Time Systems ; written by Jane W. S. Liu ; published by Prentice Hall, 2000 ; ISBN 0-13-099651-3

  9. The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System ; written by Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels, and John S. Quarterman ; published by Addison-Wesley, 1996 ; ISBN 0-201-54979-4

  10. Understanding the Linux Kernel, 2nd Edition ; written by Daniel P. Bovet and Marco Cesati ; published by O'Reilly and Associates, 2002 ; ISBN 0-596-00213-0

  11. Essential System Administration, 3rd Edition ; written by Aeleen Frisch ; published by O'Reilly and Associates, 2002 ; ISBN 0-596-00343-9

  12. LINUX System Administration Handbook ; written by Mark Komarinski and Cary Collett ; published by Prentice Hall, 2002 ; ISBN 0136805965

COURSE COVERAGE:

We will install and configure the Solaris operating system on a set of workstations and create a networked operating environment almost identical to the one we have on the Sun Ultra computers in the CS lab.

We will cover the following chapters in Vahalia and the following chapters in Nemeth: This is a lot of material! You will have to read at the rate of about 63 pages per week for 13 weeks.

QUIZZES, PROJECT & GRADING:

There will be two course components: quizzes and project. We will have a quiz about every two weeks, covering the course reading assignments.

Your project will be a term-long assignment to install and configure system software on Solaris workstations. You will do project work in teams of three persons.

Each team must keep a detailed and complete on-line journal/lab-book that describes
  1. who does/installs what,
  2. what your operating procedures are,
  3. what you are doing to monitor the correctness of your work while you are working,
  4. what you are doing to verify the correctness of your completed actions/installations,
  5. what problems and failures you are detecting and what is allowing/helping you to notice them,
  6. how you are solving the problems that come up, and
  7. all other significant developments in the project.
Each team must turn in a copy of their journal to me (by e-mail) each Monday for my review.

At the end of the semester the team will turn in a written report The report must contain input from all team members. The team must present the report orally at the end of the term. The team must also turn in a hardcopy of the report. I will base the project grade on the quality of the journal, the report, and what you appear to have accomplished and learned by doing the project.

I will have weekly conversations with the teams in order to monitor the progress of the projects. During the conversations we will work out details of what must be done. Typically your course project will not be "one big thing." It will be a series of varied system administration tasks. On any of the sun ultra's, look here:

/usr/local/install.tmp

to see information describing the basics of your project work. (Alternatively you may use this link: http://spica.csustan.edu/sunInstallInfo/ to view the SUN installation information.)

There will be no final exam. Instead you will do the oral presentations of your project reports during our designated final exam time.

Under normal circumstances your project and quiz average will each be given a weight of 50% in determining your grade.

The exception to that rule is that to pass the course you must get a passing grade in your project and a passing average on your quizzes.

BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT CLASS SESSIONS:

We will use some of our class time for lecture and discussion and some for interaction in the lab. I expect you to perform most of your project work outside of class time. Class time is mainly for answering questions and solving problems.

PARTICIPATION:

I expect everyone to attend all the classes, to participate, and to be well informed as to what is going on. I will keep track of your attendance.

I want to be accessible and helpful to you during this course. I want you to get as much as possible out of the course. Remember, however, that we are a team and you are a key player.

Read everything I assign, and read with care. Read difficult material more than once! Attend all classes. Pay close attention. Take notes. Review your notes before each class. Get started on assignments and project work early. Do a little each day, and bring your questions and problems concerning your project and readings to class each day.

Finish work on schedule. Do what you can to keep class discussion interesting and to the point. Reply to questions. Ask questions and make remarks if you feel you have something to add, or if you feel something needs to be explained better.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN WORK:

Quizzes: You must write your quizzes with no discussion or help from anyone. The one exception is that you are allowed to come forward and ask me to clarify the meaning of a quiz question, if you wish. It will be up to me to decide how to answer, or whether to answer at all. I will tell the class any new information that arises from such an exchange.

Projects: I expect you to share equally in the work of your project, and to live up to the commitments that you make to your partner.

Penalties: If there is compelling evidence of dishonesty or shirking of responsibility, I will withhold credit.

NETWORK AVAILABILITY OF COURSE MATERIALS:

Course documents, assignments, supplements, and so on will be made available via the world wide web. To access the on-line CS 4750 materials, you can open the URL

http://www.cs.csustan.edu/~john/Classes/CS4750/

from any web browser on any computer connected to the campus network or the Internet.

Also, there is a miscellaneous collection of information that you may want to use from time to time. It is located here:

http://www.cs.csustan.edu/~john/Classes/General_Info/

I'll let you know about other web-based resources from time to time.

COMPUTER EQUIPMENT:

Each of you is supposed to have an account that gives you access to all the Computer Science Department Sun Ultra computers. The computers have a network file system, so you get the same home directory, regardless of which Sun Ultra you log on to.

If you don't seem to have access to the Ultra's, then let me know right away. Fill in and send an account request form or send me an e-mail containing the information requested by the form. I'll see to it that you get an account and the information you need to access it.

Generally, CS Department workstations are available for access and use on a 24-hour basis. However campus computer labs do not remain open at all hours. Therefore sometimes network and modem connections are the only means available for connecting to a workstation. For more information about network and modem connections, see the sections below entitled "MODEM CONNECTIONS" and "INTERNET CONNECTIONS". Also see the course document entitled loginDirections.html.

The CS Lab in P-288 will be open basically mid-morning until about 5:00 p.m.. During these times, you can be physically present in the lab while using a department computer. This can be very beneficial because you then have the opportunity to work and communicate with fellow students and members of the staff and faculty.

Due to budgetary constraints beyond our control, the hours during which P-288 is open are subject to change on short notice. Please check the postings of the lab hours at the entrance to the lab or in the "message of the day" that is printed on your screen when you log on to your Sun Ultra account.

Incidentally, the CS Department often seeks volunteers and work-study students to help keep the lab open longer hours. For further information, ask our system administrator, Julie Gorman: P-288C , 667-3273, julie@eos.csustan.edu. .

While you are in the CS Lab, you will be able to access Sun Ultra workstations by logging in directly at the console, or by using ssh or telnet from some other kind of computer in the lab, such as a Macintosh or a "Wintel".

MODEM CONNECTIONS:

Some phone numbers for making modem connections are: from Turlock 669-9834; toll-free from Modesto 523-2173; toll-free from Merced 723-2810; and toll-free from Stockton 467-5399. There has been recent discussion of discontinuing the availability of some of these connections. Check with the computer center's (OIT's) help desk to get the latest information. The help desk is in L-130, and the telephone number is 667-3687.

INTERNET CONNECTIONS:

You may want to purchase Internet connectivity. This is not a requirement and not necessary for success, but it can be a great time-saver and a convenience once you have gotten past the hurdle of setting everything up.

There are several Internet service providers (ISP's) that serve this area. Chances are that members of the class can make good recommendations. We can devote some time to this topic on the first day of class.

One can find many ISP's by using the site: http://thelist.internet.com. ISP's also advertise in the yellow pages and in newspapers.

If you get an Internet connection, make sure you have remote login and file transfer capability. Depending on what kind of computer you have, you may need to get some special add-on software for doing doing remote login and file transfer. For more information about this, read the remote login and file transfer help sheet. For additional information, ask me or the CS Lab Administrator, Julie Gorman.