DS L1. What are main design goals in DS?

Question 1

What is a Distributed System?

Answer 1

A DS is a computing system composed of interconnected nodes working together to achieve a common goal. The nodes are physically dispersed and communicate through a network. Each node can have different components

Question 2

What are the benefits of DS’s?

Answer 2

Through the collective computational power and resources of the nodes, a DS can perform tasks more efficiently, handle large-scale data processing, improve fault tolerance, and support scalability

Question 3

Name some examples of DS’s

Answer 3

CDN’s, cloud platforms, P2P networks, distributed databases

Question 4

List the main design goals of a DS

Answer 4

Scalability, reliability, availability, consistency, performance, efficient communication, flexibility, security, manageability, and cost-effectiveness

Question 5

What is scalability?

Answer 5

The ability to handle growing numbers of users and/or resources

Question 6

How can scalability be achieved?

Answer 6

Either through horizontal scaling, eg adding more nodes, or through vertical scaling, eg increasing capacity of existing nodes

Question 7

What is reliability?

Answer 7

The ability to operate reliably even in the presence of failures, faults, and unexpected events

Question 8

How can reliability be achieved?

Answer 8

By implementing mechanisms such as redundancy (having more resources than are strictly needed), replication (maintaining multiple copies of resources), and error detection to ensure continuous operation and data integrity

Question 9

What is availability?

Answer 9

The ability to ensure that services remain accessible and responsive at all times

Question 10

How can availability be achieved?

Answer 10

By redundancy mechanisms and distributing workload across multiple nodes, minimizing downtime and mitigating impact of failures

Question 11

What is consistency?

Answer 11

The ability to maintain data and state across multiple nodes, so that all nodes have the same view of the system despite concurrent operations and updates

Question 12

How can consistency be achieved?

Answer 12

By implementing distributed consensus protocols, replication strategies, and transactional mechanisms

Question 13

What is performance?

Answer 13

The ability to achieve optimal response time, throughput, and resource utilization

Question 14

How can performance be achieved?

Answer 14

By optimizing communication protocols, minimizing latency, and efficiently utilizing computing resources to meet performance requirements

Question 15

What is efficient communication?

Answer 15

The ability of nodes and components to communicate and coordinate

Question 16

How can efficient communication be achieved?

Answer 16

By designing efficient messaging protocols, data serialization formats, and network protocols to minimize overhead and latency in communication

Question 17

What is flexibility?

Answer 17

The ability to adapt to changes in workload, requirements, and environment

Question 18

How can flexibility be achieved?

Answer 18

By designing modular, loosely coupled components that can be easily scaled, upgraded, or replaced without disrupting the overall system

Question 19

What is manageability?

Answer 19

The ability of the system to be easily managed, monitored, and debugged

Question 20

How can manageability be achieved?

Answer 20

By providing tools, APIs, and monitoring capabilities for managing configuration, performance, and health of distributed components

Question 21

What is cost-effectiveness?

Answer 21

The ability to meet requirements while optimizing resource use and minimizing infrastructure costs

Question 22

How can cost-effectiveness be achieved?

Answer 22

By optimizing resource utilization, minimizing operational expenses, and maximizing the value derived from investments in infrastructure and technology