CSR: Small: Operator Proof Systems Management

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。许多研究表明，人为错误是系统故障的重要来源。此外，修复错误通常很耗时，导致高不可用性。在这个项目中，我们将探索一种处理人为错误的新方法，称为操作员-防系统管理。在防操作系统中，无所不在的管理基础设施将使系统能够抵御操作人员的错误。基础设施将持续监控操作人员的行为和系统状态，以决定何时以及如何保护系统。可能的防御措施包括阻止操作人员可能导致错误的操作和/或限制操作人员的访问，以防止错误在整个系统中蔓延。如果系统可以测试操作员操作的正确性，则稍后取消阻塞。为了探索我们的想法，我们将设计和实现两个非常不同的原型运营商验证系统：互联网服务和企业系统。我们将探索设计空间，并通过运行大量实验来评估整体方法，其中要求不同经验水平的志愿者操作人员在原型系统上执行各种任务。更广泛的影响。我们的研究将为实现一个模型提供一个具体的步骤，在这个模型中，大型计算机系统可以由技能较低的个人以较低的成本操作。我们的调查还将使大量学生（作为志愿者操作员）接触到系统管理问题和我们提出的解决方案。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Many studies have shown that human mistakes are an important source of system failures. Further, repairing mistakes is often time consuming, leading to high unavailability. In this project, we will explore a novel approach to dealing with human mistakes called operator-proof systems management. In an operator-proof system, an omnipresent management infrastructure will enable the system to defend itself against operator mistakes. The infrastructure will constantly monitor operator actions and the system state to decide when and how the system should defend itself. Possible defensive measures include blocking operator actions that could lead to a mistake and/or limiting operator access to prevent mistakes from spreading throughout the system. Blocks are later lifted if the system can test the correctness of the operator actions.To explore our ideas, we will design and implement two very different prototype operator-proof systems: an Internet service and an enterprise system. We will explore the design space and evaluate the overall approach by running a large set of experiments, where volunteer operators of different levels of experience are asked to perform a variety of tasks on the prototype systems.Broader impacts. Our research will provide a concrete step toward the realization of a model where large computer systems can be operated at lower cost by less skilled individuals. Our investigation will also expose a large number of students (acting as volunteer operators) to system management issues and our proposed solutions.