MULTICS TECHNICAL BULLETIN                    MTB-604
     
     
     
     
     To: Distribution
     
     From: Michael A. Pandolf
     
     Date: 01/27/83
     
     Subject: Data Management: The Daemon Process
     
     
     
     
     1.  Abstract
     
     This  document describes the functions of and interfaces to
     the  process  that  will be chartered with safeguarding the
     integrety of the Multics data management system.
     
     
     
     Send comments on this MTB by one of the following means:
     
          By Multics Mail, on MIT or System M to:
             Pandolf.Multics
     
          By Posted Mail to:
             Michael A. Pandolf
             Honeywell Information Systems, Inc.
             575 Technology Square
             Cambridge, Massachusetts  02139
     
          By Telephone at:
             (HVN) 261-9391 or (617) 492-9391.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     ___________________________________________________________
     Multics  Project internal working documentation.  Not to be
     distributed outside the Multics Project.
     
     
     
     
          01/27/83                               page 1
     

     MTB-604
     
     
     2.   Defining  the  Need  for  a  Daemon  Process  in  Data
          Management
     
     2.1 Issues
     
     There  is  a  necessary overhead associated with the use of
     the  Multics  Data  Management  System  (Multics  DMS).  By
     overhead,  it  is  meant  that  there exist functions to be
     performed  under the aegis of the DMS that are not directly
     related  to the manipulation of data records, the shuffling
     of control intervals between media, or the saving of before
     and  after  images  of changes made to data.  Whereas these
     overhead  functions  must be performed within a process, it
     is  not  immediately clear which of the processes using the
     DMS is to perform the function.  One example of an overhead
     function  is  DMS initialization.  This can be performed by
     the  first process to reference data management and find it
     not  initialized,  by  the  Initializer at Multics bootload
     time,  or  by  a  process  assigned  to  babysit  the  DMS.
     Considering  that  the  current trend is to ease the job of
     the  Initializer  by  moving  some  of  its  tasks to other
     processes, it will not be asked to concern itself with data
     management.   Choosing  between  the  remaining two options
     depends on the following criteria.
     
     2.2 Access
     
     At  an  arbitrary  time a process using the Multics DMS may
     terminate.   It  is possible that the data this process was
     manipulating at its termination was left in an inconsistent
     state.   Although  other  processes  using the DMS have the
     ability  to  clean  up  after  the  dead process, issues of
     access  control  arise.   Protected data bases will rely on
     the  standard Multics access control list for discretionary
     access  enforcement.   This access control must be bypassed
     in  a  non  trivial  manner  if  a random DMS process is to
     recover  an  orphaned  transaction.   An obvious and easily
     understandable  mechanism  for dead process recovery can be
     embodied in the use of a designated process with widespread
     access to handle all data base recoveries for the system.
     
     2.3 Processing Overhead
     
     Recovery  of  a  transaction  started by a now dead process
     will  usually  require a rollback of the transaction, which
     is  not  a  trivial  operation.   An arbitrary process that
     decides  to  rollback the transaction of a dead process may
     incur  more processing time from the rollback than from its
     own  transaction.   The  real  time  response will likewise
     suffer.   By  isolating  the  recovery in a single process,
     transactions that happen upon the disabled transaction will
     not pay in processing time for its recovery.
     
     
          page 2                               01/27/83
     

                                                   MTB-604
     
     
     
     2.4 Cost of Overhead
     
     In addition to slowing down processes that are handling the
     data  base  recovery,  a processing cost is charged against
     the altruistic process that decides to perform the recovery
     As  in  the processing overhead, this cost may be orders of
     magnitude  greater than the cost of the transaction proper.
     If  this  cost  were  delegated to a separate process, this
     process   could   determine  who  the  owner  of  the  dead
     transaction  was  and charge the cost of the transaction to
     it;  at least the live process would not be charged for the
     rollback, either directly or indirectly.
     
     3.  Functions of the Data Management Daemon Process
     
     3.1 Initialization
     
     Initialization of a DMS invocation must be completed before
     the  DMS  system  is  used  by  any process.  Ideally, this
     initialization   should  be  part  of  the  Multics  system
     startup.   A  DMS  specific daemon ought to be logged in by
     the  Initializer  as  early  as possible.  This daemon will
     verify  that  all previous invocations of the DMS have been
     properly  shut  down, build new system tables, and open the
     DMS  for  system  use.   Upon successful completion of this
     task,  the process will wait for recovery requests from the
     processes using the DMS.
     
     For  those  sites using AIM, there must be an invocation of
     the  DMS  for  each  AIM  class  that  wishes  to  use data
     management.   This  implies  that  there will be a separate
     daemon  logged  in  for  a  DMS at each AIM classification.
     Descriptions  of the relationships between data management,
     its  initialization and AIM can be found in two other MTBs:
     Data  Management:  System  Structure  (number 592) and Data
     Management: Crash Recovery (number 603).
     
     3.2 Shutdown
     
     By  design,  a  new  invocation  of the DMS cannot commence
     until  all  previous  invocations  have  been properly shut
     down.  Proper shutdown implies that all transactions within
     an  invocation  have  ceased:  all  data  management before
     journals and protected files are in a consistent state, not
     needing  recovery.   This shutdown can be performed as late
     as  the next DMS initialization or (hopefully as the normal
     case) at some time before Multics itself shuts down.
     
     In   the  usual  case,  a  request  to  shutdown  the  data
     management   system  will  entail  the  transmission  of  a
     shutdown  signal  from  the Initializer process to the data
     
     
          01/27/83                               page 3
     

     MTB-604
     
     
     management  daemon  process  early  in the Multics shutdown
     cycle.   A  mechanism  also  exists  for  the  operator  to
     shutdown the data management system by issuing a command to
     the  daemon  process.   In either case, the daemon ought to
     remain  logged in to wait until the whole of the DMS enters
     a  quiescent  state.   Since this may take an indeterminate
     amount  of  time,  the daemon should be logged out with all
     other  daemons  when  Multics  is in its shutdown cycle, or
     after  a  twenty  minute  wait  when  shutdown  by explicit
     operator command.
     
     3.3 Process Recovery
     
     It is expected that the bulk of daemon processing time will
     be   used   to  recover  from  the  effects  of  a  process
     terminating   while   it  was  within  the  confines  of  a
     transaction.   This  recovery may involve a rollback of the
     dead  process's  transaction.  At the least, it will entail
     the removal of the process's registration information found
     in  various  data management system tables.  A mechanism to
     signal  the  daemon  whereby  the Multics answering service
     will  wake  the  daemon  up  at  each  instance  of process
     termination  shall  be  employed.   At  this time, the data
     management daemon will scan the appropriate tables, looking
     for  the  process  that  was  just terminated.  If the dead
     process is found, system tables will be cleaned up.
     
     Two   scenarios   within  the  dynamic  operation  of  data
     management  that  require  daemon  intervention  have  been
     identified: the discovery that a lock in the lock manager's
     table  is held by a dead process, and the refusal of before
     journal manager to record a "mark" in a journal because the
     journal  is  full.   In  the  context  of  the  former, the
     discovered  lock  and  all  other  locks  held  by the dead
     process  should  be  freed,  in  addition  to  the required
     cleanup  of a now inactive transaction.  In the latter, the
     situation is slightly more complex.  Internal to the DMS, a
     full  before  journal  is  an  expected, though bothersome,
     event.  Based on the hunch that the journal is full because
     that  part  of the journal from where more storage space is
     obtained   is  occupied  by  "marks"  of  a  dead  process'
     transaction,  we  ask the daemon to verify this hypothesis,
     and  wait  for  a  confirming reply that indicates that the
     space is now free.  The implication here is that the daemon
     finds  a  dead  process  owning  the space, adjusts the the
     orphaned  transaction  and  informs  the signalling process
     that  it  may proceed.  If the space is not owned by a dead
     process,  a  subsequent  attempt  at writing the new "mark"
     will still fail: the before journal is indeed full, and the
     process  atempting  to  write  into  the  journal  will  be
     informed of the journal's state.
     
     
     
          page 4                               01/27/83
     

                                                   MTB-604
     
     
     4.  Software Support
     
     4.1 The Daemon Process
     
     4.1.1 Processing Environment
     
     The  personid of the daemon that is assigned to oversee the
     DMS  is  appropriately, "Data_Management".  This process is
     assigned  to  the "Daemon" project, seeing that it does not
     require the broad access privileges of a SysDaemon.
     
     In  order  to  create the daemon environment, three modules
     are  used: dmsd_overseer_, dmsd_listener_ and dmsd_logger_.
     The    module    dmsd_overseer_    has   two   entrypoints:
     dmsd_overseer_  and  test.   The  former  is intended to be
     called  from  initialize_process_  and  the  latter from an
     external   procedure   (or   carefully   from  the  command
     processor).    When  using  the  test  entrypoint,  a  test
     directory   must   be   supplied.   Called  through  either
     entrypoint,        dmsd_overseer_        itself       calls
     dmsd_listener_$listen   in   the   same  way  the  standard
     process_overseer_    calls    listen_.    Unlike   listen_,
     dmsd_listener_  does not wait for command lines; rather, it
     waits  for  user-signalled events.  A built-in timer exists
     for  the daemon to periodically garbage collect the various
     system tables.
     
     A special command level intermediary is used to prevent the
     data  management  daemon  from reaching a standard listener
     level,   which  would  actually  have  no  meaning  in  its
     environment.  The intermediary allows three actions: start,
     stop   and   logout.   These  actions  reenter  the  daemon
     listener,  shutdown  the  DMS,  and  log  the  daemon  out,
     respectively.   In the test mode, three additional commands
     are permitted: probe, debug and listen.
     
     All  output generated by the daemon while under the control
     of  either  the  overseer  or listener is channeled through
     dmsd_logger_.   Two  entrypoints are provided to substitute
     for  ioa_ and com_err_.  These are named named "output" and
     "error",  respectively.   These entrypoints differ from the
     ones  that  they  replace  in  that they require a severity
     level  as  an  argument  immediately  preceeding  the  ioa_
     control  string.   This  new  argument serves to direct the
     message  to  a  particular  destination,  either  to a data
     management  system  log or to the daemon user_i/o switch or
     both (see section 5.3.3 for more information).
     
     4.1.2 Reponding to User Action Requests
     
     There is no program separate from those mentioned above for
     receiving  a  request  from a data management user process.
     
     
          01/27/83                               page 5
     

     MTB-604
     
     
     The  listener loop in the procedure dmsd_listener_ contains
     all the necessary logic to wait for, decode, and act upon a
     data  management system specific wakeup.  A list of allowed
     actions,  which are mapped into IPC messages, is maintained
     in  the data segment dm_request_action_.  Upon decoding the
     IPC  message into an action code and its defined arguments,
     the  listener  calls  an  internal  procedure to handle the
     request,  and  continues  with the listener loop.  A common
     function  of one of these internal procedures is to extract
     all  interesting information from the IPC event and forward
     this   data   to   an   external   procedure,   usually   a
     transaction_manager_ entrypoint.
     
     4.2 The User Process
     
     4.2.1 Limitations
     
     Procedures  within  the data management system that perform
     privileged functions (e.g., adopt a transaction not started
     by this process) verify that the process executing the code
     is  the  data  management supervisor process.  Therefore, a
     user  process  cannot shut the data management system down,
     cannot  adopt  an  arbitrary  transaction,  etc.  A process
     wishing  to  perform  any of these priviledged actions must
     send  the  data  management daemon a message requesting the
     action.
     
     4.2.2 Interface to the Daemon
     
     The  lowest  level  interface to the daemon process that is
     available  to  a  user  process  is, of course, hcs_$wakeup
     itself.   In  order to provide an easier method for sending
     the  daemon a request, a procedure named "dm_send_request_"
     is  provided.   A  user  process  program need only call an
     entrypoint  that  reflects  the desired action, passing the
     required  parameters.   Other  details  of  the  wakeup are
     handled by the sending procedure.
     
     While  realizing that the call to dm_send_request_ will ask
     of  the  DMS  daemon  a specific favor, it follows that the
     portion  of  code  that  decides to wake the daemon up must
     have the intelligence to determine exactly what is required
     of  the  daemon, if anything at all is needed.  In order to
     localize  this  intelligence,  an arbitrary data management
     support   routine  should  not  include  code  to  use  the
     dm_send_request_  interface;  rather, a call should be made
     to  transaction_manager_  at  some  to-be-named  entry.  It
     becomes   the  responsibility  of  transaction_manager_  to
     decide  on  the  correct  daemon  request.   The  code that
     decides   which  action  the  daemon  should  perform  will
     therefore be localized for ease of maintenance.
     
     
     
          page 6                               01/27/83
     

                                                   MTB-604
     
     
     5.  Subroutine interfaces
     
     5.1 dmsd_overseer_
     
     Function:
     
          Sets  up  the environment in which the data management
          daemon will run.
     
     Usage:
     
          dcl  dmsd_overseer_ entry (ptr, bit (1) aligned,
               char (*) varying);
          call dmsd_overseer_ (ptr_ptr, call_std_listener_sw,
               initial_command_line);
     
     or
     
          dcl  dmsd_overseer_$test entry (char (*));
          call dmsd_overseer_$test (test_dir);
     
     where
     
          pit_ptr
          
               is  a pointer to the process initialization table
               (Input).
          
          call_std_listener_sw
               is  a  flag  to  indicate  whether  the  standard
               Multics   listener   should   be   called   after
               dmsd_overseer_ returns (Output).
               
          initial_command_line
               is  the  initial command line to be passed to the
               Multics listener if the call_std_listener_sw flag
               is on (Output).
               
          test_dir
               is  a  directory  path  name  used  to  create an
               invocation of the data management system (Input).
               
     5.2 dmsd_listener_
     
     Function:
     
          Enters  a  loop  in  which the process will go blocked
          awaiting  requests for data management system recovery
          from other processes.
     
     Usage:
     
     
     
          01/27/83                               page 7
     

     MTB-604
     
     
          dcl  dmsd_listener_$listen entry ();
     
          call dmsd_listener_$listen ();
     
     5.3 dmsd_logger_
     
     5.3.1 dmsd_logger_$output
     
     Function:
     
          Forwards  output  from  the daemon process to either a
          log or to the daemon process output switch, or both.
     
     Usage:
     
          dcl  dmsd_logger_$output entry () options (variable);
          call dmsd_logger_$output (severity, control_string,
               arg1_, ... , argn_);
     
     5.3.2 dmsd_logger_$error
     
     Function:
     
          Forwards  error  output  from  the  daemon  process to
          either a log or to the com_err_ subroutine, or both.
     
     Usage:
     
          dcl  dmsd_logger_$error entry () options (variable);
          call dmsd_logger_$error (severity, code, caller,
               control_string, arg1_, ... , argn_);
     
     5.3.3 Arguments
     
     The following arguments are used by dmsd_logger_:
     
          severity
               is a required fixed binary value that ranges from
               zero  to four.  A severity of zero indicates that
               the message should be logged only.  A code of one
               or  two  indicates  that  the  message  should be
               logged  and  forwarded and that a fatal error has
               occurred  in  the  daemon process.  A severity of
               three indicates that the message should be logged
               and forwarded.  A severity of four indicates that
               the message should be printed only.  These values
               are available via symbolic names from the include
               file dms_daemon_sv_codes.incl.pl1.  (Input).
     
          code
               is  a  required fixed binary (35) standard system
               status code (Input).
     
     
          page 8                               01/27/83
     

                                                   MTB-604
     
     
     
          caller
               is  a  required  character (*) value equal to the
               name of the program calling dmsd_logger_ (Input).
               
          control_string
               is an optional ioa_ control string (Input).
     
          arg1_  through  argn_
               are  values  which  will  be substituted into the
               control string, according to ioa_ processing.
            
     5.3.4 Notes
     
     During  standard  operation,  the  log  is found in the AIM
     directory  as  segment  "dm_system_log".  It can be read by
     using the print_log tool.
     
     5.4 dm_send_request_
     
     5.4.1 dm_send_request_$adjust_tdt_entry
     
     Function:
     
          Sends  a  wakeup to the data management daemon for the
          purpose  of  adjusting  the  status  of  a  single DMS
          transaction.
          
     Usage:
          
          dcl  dm_send_request_$adjust_tdt_entry entry (bit (36)
               aligned, fixed bin, fixed bin (35));
          call dm_send_request_$adjust_tdt_entry
               (transaction_id, transaction_index, code);
          
     
     5.4.2 dm_send_request_$adjust_tdt
     
     Function:
          
          Sends  a  wakeup to the data management daemon for the
          purpose of updating the entries in the DMS transaction
          table.
     
     Usage:
          
          dcl  dm_send_request_$adjust_tdt entry
               (fixed bin (35));
          call dm_send_request_$adjust_tdt (code);
          
     5.4.3 dm_send_request_$adjust_process_id
          
     
     
          01/27/83                               page 9
     

     MTB-604
     
     
     Function:
          
          Sends  a  wakeup to the data management daemon for the
          purpose  of removing any effects a dead process has on
          data management.
          
     Usage:
          
          dcl  dm_send_request_$adjust_process_id entry
               (bit (36), fixed bin (35));
          call dm_send_request_$adjust_process_id (process_id,
               code);
          
     5.4.4 dm_send_request_$shutdown
          
     Function:
          
          Sends  a  wakeup to the data management daemon for the
          purpose   of   preventing  further  transactions  from
          commencing.
          
     Usage:
          
          dcl  dm_send_request_$shutdown entry (fixed bin (35));
          call dm_send_request_$shutdown (code);
          
     5.4.5 Arguments
     
     The following arguments are required by dmsd_send_request_:
          
     transaction_id
          is an aligned bit (36) transaction identifier (Input).
     
     transaction_index
          is a fixed binary index into the DMS transaction table
          of  the  transaction  with  identifier  transaction_id
          (Input).
     
     process_id
          is a bit (36) process identifier (Input).
     
     code
          is  a  fixed  bin  (35)  standard  system  status code
          (Output).
     
     5.4.6 Notes:
     
     Additional entrypoints will be added to dm_send_request_ as
     needed by demand in the future.
     
     
     
     
     
          page 10                               01/27/83