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Comp 464 Question Paper
Comp 464
Course:Bachelor Of Computer Science
Institution: Kabarak University question papers
Exam Year:2008
COURSE CODE: COMP 464
COURSE TITLE: DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
STREAM: Y4S1
INSTRUCTIONS:
Answer Question 1 and two other Questions
PLEASE TURN OVER
Question 1 (30 Marks)
(a) Explain the following terms
(i) Distributed system architecture (1 Mark)
(ii) Transaction atomicity (1 Mark)
(iii) Component (1 Mark)
(b) Describe any three characteristics of a good server program. (3 Marks)
(c) Explain three issues that locks prevent in SQL server. (3 Marks)
(d) Explain four approaches to building distributed systems excluding middleware. Give
one advantage and disadvantage of each. (6 Marks)
(e) Explain the following levels used to describe Distributed system reference model
(i) Based on components (1 mark)
(ii) Based on functions (1 mark)
(iii) Based on Data (1 mark)
(f) Discuss how SQL92 Specification deals with transaction isolation (6 Marks)
(g) Describe the four consistency levels for transactions on dirty reads that give flexibility
to programmers in developing distributed applications. (6 marks)
Question 2 (20 Marks)
(a) Write a VB.net program that reads data using an event procedure from supplies data
set and writes it in xml format in a file named supplies.xml in one of three stream modes,
depending on selections the user makes through radio buttons. The program then reads
the supplies.xml file using another event procedure and displays results in multline
txtdisplay textbox. (8 Marks)
(b) Explain four critical distributed system design issues and briefly describe how would
use knowledge about the issues to design a computer distance learning systems.
(8 Marks)
(c) Name and explain any four types of transparencies a distributed system should
provide. (4 Marks)
Question 3 (20 Marks)
(a) Discuss 5 Major factors an organization needs to consider in order to choose between
using a Network operating system or standard data exchange language to implement its
distributed system. (5 Marks)
(b) Name and explain five value added extensions that transaction monitors have over
traditional client/server communication and Remote procedure call (RPC) and Object
Request Broker (ORB) invocation. (5 Marks)
(c) (i) Write an ADO.NET server transaction Program that inserts a customer record
in bank SQL server, savings database, custdetails table, Userid=zxkmn,
password=qvfd. Data is entered in textboxes and all record are displayed in
datagrid after adding new record. Details:1256, Nelson, acct1115, 29/10/1985
The structure of employee table is shown below
customerid name accountno dateopen
(10 Marks)
Question 4
(a) Describe any six architectural alternatives for distributed databases based on
autonomy, distribution and heterogeneity. (6 Marks)
(b) (i) Describe the ODBC database interface (4
Marks)
(ii) Explain four issues that should be handled by ODBC client driver.
(4 marks)
(c) Explain six benefits of transaction monitors to users of the distributed system.
(6 Marks)
Question 5 (20 Marks)
(a) Describe four major trends in Transaction processing monitors (4
Marks)
(b) Discuss five advantages of using Service oriented architecture over Distributed object
architectures (5
Marks)
(c) Explain why DCE has a good naming and addressing scheme for resources (6 Marks)
(d) Discuss how CORBA architecture meets the three design goals of CORBA
(5 Marks)
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