UNIT 5 – Device Management

Device Controller
It is a hardware program mainly utilized to connect a computer's operating system and functions
in the phase by connecting the device driver. It is an electronic component that handles the link
between incoming and outgoing signals in a processor by using chips.
It serves as a link between a device and any program that can receive commands from the operating
system. These functions include buttons like reading, writing, etc. Every button and controller of
various types of controllers differs from one another, with differences based on how they are
utilized.
The device controller gets data from a connected system device and temporarily saves such data
in a special purpose register inside the controller known as a local buffer. There is a device driver
for every device controller. The memory is linked with the memory controller. The monitor is
linked with the video controller, and the keyword is linked with the keyboard controller. The disk
drive and USB drive are each attached to their respective disk controllers. These controllers are
linked to the processor through the common bus.

Principles of I/O software:

I/O software is often organized in the following layers −
• User Level Libraries − This provides simple interface to the user program to perform
input and output. For example, stdio is a library provided by C and C++ programming
languages.
• Kernel Level Modules − This provides device driver to interact with the device
controller and device independent I/O modules used by the device drivers.
• Hardware − This layer includes actual hardware and hardware controller which interact
with the device drivers and makes hardware alive.
A key concept in the design of I/O software is that it should be device independent where it
should be possible to write programs that can access any I/O device without having to specify the
device in advance. For example, a program that reads a file as input should be able to read a file
on a floppy disk, on a hard disk, or on a CD-ROM, without having to modify the program for
each different device.
Device Drivers
Device drivers are software modules that can be plugged into an OS to handle a particular
device. Operating System takes help from device drivers to handle all I/O devices. Device
drivers encapsulate device-dependent code and implement a standard interface in such a way that
code contains device-specific register reads/writes. Device driver, is generally written by the
device's manufacturer and delivered along with the device on a CD-ROM.
A device driver performs the following jobs −
• To accept request from the device independent software above to it.
• Interact with the device controller to take and give I/O and perform required error
handling
• Making sure that the request is executed successfully
How a device driver handles a request is as follows: Suppose a request comes to read a block N.
If the driver is idle at the time a request arrives, it starts carrying out the request immediately.
Otherwise, if the driver is already busy with some other request, it places the new request in the
queue of pending requests.

Interrupt handlers
An interrupt handler, also known as an interrupt service routine or ISR, is a piece of software or
more specifically a callback function in an operating system or more specifically in a device
driver, whose execution is triggered by the reception of an interrupt.
When the interrupt happens, the interrupt procedure does whatever it has to in order to handle the
interrupt, updates data structures and wakes up process that was waiting for an interrupt to
happen.
The interrupt mechanism accepts an address ─ a number that selects a specific interrupt handling
routine/function from a small set. In most architectures, this address is an offset stored in a table
called the interrupt vector table. This vector contains the memory addresses of specialized
interrupt handlers.

Device-Independent I/O Software

The basic function of the device-independent software is to perform the I/O functions that are
common to all devices and to provide a uniform interface to the user-level software. Though it is
difficult to write completely device independent software but we can write some modules which
are common among all the devices. Following is a list of functions of device-independent I/O
Software −
• Uniform interfacing for device drivers
• Device naming - Mnemonic names mapped to Major and Minor device numbers
• Device protection
• Providing a device-independent block size
• Buffering because data coming off a device cannot be stored in final destination.
• Storage allocation on block devices
• Allocation and releasing dedicated devices
• Error Reporting

User-Space I/O Software

These are the libraries which provide richer and simplified interface to access the functionality of
the kernel or ultimately interactive with the device drivers. Most of the user-level I/O software
consists of library procedures with some exception like spooling system which is a way of
dealing with dedicated I/O devices in a multiprogramming system.
I/O Libraries (e.g., stdio) are in user-space to provide an interface to the OS resident device-
independent I/O SW. For example putchar(), getchar(), printf() and scanf() are example of user
level I/O library stdio available in C programming.

Kernel I/O Subsystem

Kernel I/O Subsystem is responsible to provide many services related to I/O. Following are some
of the services provided.
• Scheduling − Kernel schedules a set of I/O requests to determine a good order in which
to execute them. When an application issues a blocking I/O system call, the request is
placed on the queue for that device. The Kernel I/O scheduler rearranges the order of the
queue to improve the overall system efficiency and the average response time
experienced by the applications.
• Buffering − Kernel I/O Subsystem maintains a memory area known as buffer that stores
data while they are transferred between two devices or between a device with an
application operation. Buffering is done to cope with a speed mismatch between the
producer and consumer of a data stream or to adapt between devices that have different
data transfer sizes.
• Caching − Kernel maintains cache memory which is region of fast memory that holds
copies of data. Access to the cached copy is more efficient than access to the original.
• Spooling and Device Reservation − A spool is a buffer that holds output for a device,
such as a printer, that cannot accept interleaved data streams. The spooling system copies
the queued spool files to the printer one at a time. In some operating systems, spooling is
managed by a system daemon process. In other operating systems, it is handled by an in
kernel thread.
• Error Handling − An operating system that uses protected memory can guard against
many kinds of hardware and application errors.

Input/Output Software Layers in Operating System

This post was written and made public with the intention of educating readers about the
input/output software layers that are present in operating systems.
In its most fundamental form, input/output software can be broken down into the following four
layers:
• Interrupt handlers
• Device drivers
• Device-independent input/output software
• User-space input/output software
In every input/output software system, each of the four layers has a well-defined function to
perform and a well-defined interface to the adjacent layers.
The figure given below shows all the layers, along with the hardware, of the input/output
software system.
Here is another figure that shows all the layers of the input/output software system along with
their principal functions.

Now let's briefly describe all four input/output software layers that are listed above.
Interrupt Handlers
The interrupt procedure will perform whatever actions are necessary in order to deal with an
interrupt whenever one of those events takes place.

Device Drivers
Device drivers, in their most basic form, are device-specific codes that are used solely for the
purpose of controlling the input/output devices that are connected to a computer system.
The term "device drivers" is likely the most familiar to you out of the four layers described in
this post; in fact, you have probably come across it at some point. It is not possible to use a
device that is connected to a computer without the appropriate device driver. To give you an
example, let's say that in order to use our computer to browse the internet, we need to connect a
MODEM to it first. As a result, in order for our MODEM to work, the device driver that
corresponds to our MODEM needs to be installed on our computer. It is possible that the
MODEM will not work if its device driver is not installed.
Device-Independent Input/Output Software
Some of the input/output software is device-specific, and other parts of that input/output software
are device-independent.
The exact boundary between the device-independent software and drivers is device-dependent,
and just because of that, some functions that could be done in a device-independent way
sometimes are done in the drivers, for efficiency or any other reason.
Here is a list of some functions that are done in the device-independent software:
• Uniform interfacing for device drivers
• Buffering
• Error reporting
• Allocating and releasing dedicated devices
• Providing a device-independent block size
User-Space Input/Output Software
Generally, most of the input/output software is within the operating system (OS), and some small
part of that input/output software consists of libraries that are linked with the user programs and
even whole programs running outside the kernel.

What is RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks)?

RAID or redundant array of independent disks is a data storage virtualization technology that
combines multiple physical disk drive components into one or more logical units for data
redundancy, performance improvement, or both.
It is a way of storing the same data in different places on multiple hard disks or solid-state drives
to protect data in the case of a drive failure. A RAID system consists of two or more drives
working in parallel. These can be hard discs, but there is a trend to use SSD technology (Solid
State Drives).
RAID combines several independent and relatively small disks into single storage of a large size.
The disks included in the array are called array members. The disks can combine into the array
in different ways, which are known as RAID levels. Each of RAID levels has its own
characteristics of:
o Fault-tolerance is the ability to survive one or several disk failures.
 o Performance shows the change in the read and writes speed of the entire array compared
to a single disk.
o The array's capacity is determined by the amount of user data written to the array. The
array capacity depends on the RAID level and does not always match the sum of the
RAID member disks' sizes. To calculate the particular RAID type's capacity and a set of
member disks, you can use a free online RAID calculator.
RAID systems can use with several interfaces, including SATA, SCSI, IDE, or FC (fiber
channel.) Some systems use SATA disks internally but that have a FireWire or SCSI interface for
the host system.
Sometimes disks in a storage system are defined as JBOD, which stands for Just a Bunch of
Disks. This means that those disks do not use a specific RAID level and acts as stand-alone
disks. This is often done for drives that contain swap files or spooling data.
How RAID Works
RAID works by placing data on multiple disks and allowing input/output operations to overlap in
a balanced way, improving performance. Because various disks increase the mean time between
failures (MTBF), storing data redundantly also increases fault tolerance.
RAID arrays appear to the operating system as a single logical drive. RAID employs the
techniques of disk mirroring or disk striping.
o Disk Mirroring will copy identical data onto more than one drive.
o Disk Striping partitions help spread data over multiple disk drives. Each drive's storage
space is divided into units ranging from 512 bytes up to several megabytes. The stripes of
all the disks are interleaved and addressed in order.
o Disk mirroring and disk striping can also be combined in a RAID array.
In a single-user system where significant records are stored, the stripes are typically set up to be
small (512 bytes) so that a single record spans all the disks and can be accessed quickly by
reading all the disks at the same time.
In a multi-user system, better performance requires a stripe wide enough to hold the typical or
maximum size record, allowing overlapped disk I/O across drives.
Levels of RAID
Many different ways of distributing data have been standardized into various RAID levels. Each
RAID level is offering a trade-off of data protection, system performance, and storage space. The
number of levels has been broken into three categories, standard, nested, and non-standard RAID
levels.
Standards RAID Levels
Below are the following most popular and standard RAID levels.
1. RAID 0 (striped disks)
RAID 0 is taking any number of disks and merging them into one large volume. It will increase
speeds as you're reading and writing from multiple disks at a time. But all data on all disks is lost
if any one disk fails. An individual file can then use the speed and capacity of all the drives of the
array. The downside to RAID 0, though, is that it is NOT redundant. The loss of any individual
disk will cause complete data loss. This RAID type is very much less reliable than having a
single disk.

There is rarely a situation where you should use RAID 0 in a server environment. You can use it
for cache or other purposes where speed is essential, and reliability or data loss does not matter at
all.
2. RAID 1 (mirrored disks)
It duplicates data across two disks in the array, providing full redundancy. Both disks are store
exactly the same data, at the same time, and at all times. Data is not lost as long as one disk
survives. The total capacity of the array equals the capacity of the smallest disk in the array. At
any given instant, the contents of both disks in the array are identical.
RAID 1 is capable of a much more complicated configuration. The point of RAID 1 is primarily
for redundancy. If you completely lose a drive, you can still stay up and running off the other
drive.
If either drive fails, you can then replace the broken drive with little to no downtime. RAID 1
also gives you the additional benefit of increased read performance, as data can read off any of
the drives in the array. The downsides are that you will have slightly higher write latency. Since
the data needs to be written to both drives in the array, you'll only have a single drive's available
capacity while needing two drives.
3. RAID 5(striped disks with single parity)
RAID 5 requires the use of at least three drives. It combines these disks to protect data against
loss of any one disk; the array's storage capacity is reduced by one disk. It strips data across
multiple drives to increase performance. But, it also adds the aspect of redundancy by
distributing parity information across the disks.

4. RAID 6 (Striped disks with double parity)

RAID 6 is similar to RAID 5, but the parity data are written to two drives. The use of additional
parity enables the array to continue to function even if two disks fail simultaneously. However,
this extra protection comes at a cost. RAID 6 has a slower write performance than RAID 5.
The chances that two drives break down at the same moment are minimal. However, if a drive in
a RAID 5 system died and was replaced by a new drive, it takes a lot of time to rebuild the
swapped drive. If another drive dies during that time, you still lose all of your data. With RAID
6, the RAID array will even survive that second failure also.
Nested RAID levels
Some RAID levels are referred to as nested RAID because they are based on a combination of
RAID levels, such as:
1. RAID 10 (1+0)
This level Combines RAID 1 and RAID 0 in a single system, which offers higher performance
than RAID 1, but at a much higher cost.
This is a nested or hybrid RAID configuration. It provides security by mirroring all data on
secondary drives while using striping across each set of drives to speed up data transfers.
2. RAID 01 (0+1)
RAID 0+1 is similar to RAID 1+0, except the data organization method is slightly different.
Rather than creating a mirror and then striping the mirror, RAID 0+1 creates a stripe set and then
mirrors the stripe set.
3. RAID 03 (0+3, also known as RAID 53 or RAID 5+3)
This level uses striping similar to RAID 0 for RAID 3's virtual disk blocks. This offers higher
performance than RAID 3 but at a higher cost.
4. RAID 50 (5+0)
This configuration combines RAID 5 distributed parity with RAID 0 striping to improve RAID 5
performance without reducing data protection.
Non-standard RAID levels
Non-standard RAID levels vary from standard RAID levels, and they are usually developed by
companies or organizations for mainly proprietary use, such as:
1. RAID 7
A non-standard RAID level is based on RAID 3 and RAID 4 that adds caching. It includes a real-
time embedded OS as a controller, caching via a high-speed bus, and other stand-alone computer
characteristics.
2. Adaptive RAID
This level enables the RAID controller to decide how to store the parity on disks. It will choose
between RAID 3 and RAID 5, depending on which RAID set type will perform better with the
kind of data being written to the disks.
3. Linux MD RAID 10
The Linux kernel provides this level. It supports the creation of nested and non-standard RAID
arrays. Linux software RAID can also support standard RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 4, RAID 5, and
RAID 6 configurations.
Implementation of RAID
The distribution of data across multiple drives can manage either by computer hardware or by
software.
1. Hardware-based
Hardware-based RAID requires a dedicated controller installed in the server. Hardware RAID
controllers can be configured through card BIOS or Option ROM before an operating system is
booted. And after the operating system is booted, proprietary configuration utilities are available
from each controller's manufacturer.
Hardware RAID is created using separate hardware. There are two options:
o AN inexpensive RAID chippossibly built into the motherboard.
o More expensive option with a complex stand-alone RAID controller. These controllers
can be equipped with their CPU, battery-backed up cache memory, and typically hot-
swapping.
A hardware-based RAID card does all the RAID array(s) management, providing logical disks to
the system with no overhead on the part of the system itself. Additionally, hardware RAID can
offer many different types of RAID configurations simultaneously to the system. This includes
providing a RAID 1 array for the boot and application drive and a RAID-5 array for the large
storage array.
Some other operating systems have implemented their own generic frameworks for interfacing
with any RAID controller and provide tools for monitoring RAID volume status. A hardware
RAID has some advantages over a software RAID, such as:
o It doesn't use the CPU of the host computer.
o It allows users to create boot partitions.
o It handles errors better since it communicates with the devices directly.
o It supports hot-swapping.
2. Software RAID
Software RAID is an included option in all of Steadfast's dedicated servers. This means there is
NO cost for software RAID 1 and is highly recommended if you're using local storage on a
system. It is highly recommended that drives in a RAID array be of the same type and size.
Software RAID is one of the cheapest RAID solutions.
Software-based RAID will control some of the system's computing power to manage the RAID
configuration. If you're looking to maximize a system's performance, such with a RAID 5 or 6
configurations, it's best to use a hardware-based RAID card when you're using standard HDDs.
Many modern operating systems provide software RAID implementations. Software RAID can
be implemented as:
o A layer that abstracts multiple devices, thereby providing a single virtual machine.
o A layer that sits above any file system and provides parity protection to user data.
If a boot drive fails, the system must be sophisticated enough to boot from the remaining drive or
drives.
There are certain limitations on the use of the software RAID to boot the system. Only RAID 1
can contain boot partition, while system boot is impossible with software RAID 5 and RAID 0.
In most cases, software RAID doesn't implement the hot-swapping, and so it cannot be used
where continuous availability is required.
Benefits of RAID
Benefits of RAID include the following.
o An improvement in cost-effectiveness because lower-priced disks are used in large
numbers.
o The use of multiple hard drives enables RAID to improve the performance of a single
hard drive.
o Increased computer speed and reliability after a crash depending on the configuration.
o There is increased availability and resiliency with RAID 5. With mirroring, RAID arrays
can have two drives containing the same data. It ensures one will continue to work if the
other fails.
Drawbacks of RAID
RAID has the following drawbacks or disadvantages:
o Nested RAID levels are more expensive to implement than traditional RAID levels
because they require many disks.
o The cost per gigabyte of storage devices is higher for nested RAID because many of the
drives are used for redundancy.
o When a drive fails, the probability that another drive in the array will also soon fail rises,
which would likely result in data loss. This is because all the drives in a RAID array are
installed simultaneously. So all the drives are subject to the same amount of wear.
o Some RAID levels, such as RAID 1 and 5, can only sustain a single drive failure.
o RAID arrays are in a vulnerable state until a failed drive is replaced and the new disk is
populated with data.
o When RAID was implemented, it takes a lot longer to rebuild failed drives because drives
have much greater capacity.

Disk Scheduling Algorithms

As we know, a process needs two type of time, CPU time and IO time. For I/O, it requests the
Operating system to access the disk.
However, the operating system must be fare enough to satisfy each request and at the same time,
operating system must maintain the efficiency and speed of process execution.
The technique that operating system uses to determine the request which is to be satisfied next is
called disk scheduling.
Let's discuss some important terms related to disk scheduling.
Seek Time
Seek time is the time taken in locating the disk arm to a specified track where the read/write
request will be satisfied.
Rotational Latency
It is the time taken by the desired sector to rotate itself to the position from where it can access
the R/W heads.
Transfer Time
It is the time taken to transfer the data.
Disk Access Time
Disk access time is given as,
Disk Access Time = Rotational Latency + Seek Time + Transfer Time
Disk Response Time
It is the average of time spent by each request waiting for the IO operation.
Purpose of Disk Scheduling
The main purpose of disk scheduling algorithm is to select a disk request from the queue of IO
requests and decide the schedule when this request will be processed.
Goal of Disk Scheduling Algorithm
o Fairness
o High throughout
o Minimal traveling head time
Disk Scheduling Algorithms
The list of various disks scheduling algorithm is given below. Each algorithm is carrying some
advantages and disadvantages. The limitation of each algorithm leads to the evolution of a new
algorithm.
o FCFS scheduling algorithm
o SSTF (shortest seek time first) algorithm
o SCAN scheduling
o C-SCAN scheduling
o LOOK Scheduling
o C-LOOK scheduling