February 2010 VOLUME 35 NUMBER 1 OPINION Musings 2 Rik Farrow Whither LISA? 7 Sean kamath THE USENIX MAGAZINE SYSADMIN Configuration Management Phenomenology 10 alva CouCh Puppet and Cfengine Compared: Time and Resource Consumption 16 JaRle BJøRgeengen FILE SYSTEMS Building and Installing a Hadoop/ Mapreduce Cluster from Commodity Components: A Case Study 26 JoChen l. leidneR and gaRy BeRoSik The Case for Specialized File Systems, or, Fighting File System Obesity 38 Erez zadok, vaSily taRaSov, and PRiya Sehgal SECURity A Look at VoIP Vulnerabilities 41 angeloS d. keRomytiS NetWORKING Taming the Torrent 51 david ChoffneS and FaBián e. BuStamante SSR: Securing the Internet’s Identifier Systems 60 david Piscitello HARDWARe Peculiarities of Radio Devices 64 Rudi van dRunen ColUmns Practical Perl Tools: You Never Forget Your First Date (Object) 73 david n. Blank-edelman Pete’s All Things Sun: Crossbow 79 PeteR BaeR galvin iVoyeur: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do 86 dave JoSePhSen /dev/random: Project Management—A Primer 90 RoBeRt g. Ferrell BooK REVieWS Book Reviews 93 elizaBeth zwiCky et al. UseniX NOTES Nominating Committee Report, 2010 Election for the USENIX Board of Directors 97 Rémy evaRd Thanks to Our Volunteers 98 ellie young ConfeRenCes Report on LISA ’09: 23rd Large Installation System Administration Conference 100 The Advanced Computing Systems Association feb10covers.indd 1 1.8.10 3:43:19 PM Upcoming Events 3r d USENIX Wo r k S h o p o N La r g E -Sc a le USENIX fE d E r a t E d co N f E r en c es Wee k EX p L o I t S a N d Em E r g en t th r E a t S (LEEt ’10) JUne 21–25, 2010, boSton, Ma, USa Co-located with NSDI ’10 april 27, 2010, San JoSe, ca, USa 2010 USENIX annu a L tE c h ni c a L co N f E r en c E http://www.usenix.org/leet10 (USENIX ATC ’10) Submissions due: February 25, 2010 http://www.usenix.org/atc10 USENIX co N f E r en c E o N WE b ap p li c a t I o N 2010 IN t E r ne t NE t W o r k ma N a g E m en t dE v el o p m en t (WE b ap p S ’10) o r k S h o p o r k S h o p o N ese a r c h o N W /W r http://www.usenix.org/webapps10 EN t E r p r ise NE t W o r k in g (INm/WrEN ’10) Co-located with NSDI ’10 3r d Wo r k S h o p o N online So c I a L NE t W o r k S april 27, 2010, San JoSe, ca, USa (WoSN 2010) http://www.usenix.org/inmwren10 http://www.usenix.org/wosn10 Paper submissions due: February 18, 2010 9t h IN t E r N a t I o N a L Wo r k S h o p o N pee r -t o -pee r 2N d USENIX Wo r k S h o p o N ho t to p I c S in y S t E m S S (IPTPS ’10) cL o U d co m p U t in g (ho t cL o U d ’10) Co-located with NSDI ’10 http://www.usenix.org/hotcloud10 april 27, 2010, San JoSe, ca, USa Submissions due: March 23, 2010 http://www.usenix.org/iptps10 2N d Wo r k S h o p o N ho t to p I c S in St o r a g E a N d file Sy S t E m S (ho t St o r a g E ’10) 7t h USENIX Sy m p o siu m o N NE t W o r k E d Sy S t E m S http://www.usenix.org/hotstorage10 desi g N a N d Im p le m en t a t I o N (NSdI ’10) Sponsored by USENIX in cooperation with ACM SIGCOMM and t h E c U r I t y y m p o siu m ACM SIGOPS 19 USENIX S S E c U r I t y april 28–30, 2010, San JoSe, ca, USa (USENIX S ’10) http://www.usenix.org/nsdi10 aUgust 11–13, 2010, waShington, Dc, USa http://www.usenix.org/sec10 2N d USENIX Wo r k S h o p o N ho t to p I c S in t h y m p o siu m o N p E r a t in g y S t E m S pa r a llelis m (ho t pa r ’10) 9 USENIX S o S esi g N a N d m p le m en t a t I o N Sponsored by USENIX in cooperation with ACM SIGMETRICS, d I (oSdI ’10) ACM SIGSOFT, ACM SIGOPS, and ACM SIGARCH, and ACM Sponsored by USENIX in cooperation with ACM SIGOPS SIGPLAN october 4–6, 2010, Vancouver, BC, canaDa JUne 14–15, 2010, berkeley, CA, USa Submissions due: May 7, 2010 http://www.usenix.org/hotpar10 24t h La r g E Ins t a ll a t I o N Sy S t E m ad m inis t r a t I o N 8t h annu a L IN t E r N a t I o N a L co N f E r en c E o N co N f E r en c E (LISa ’10) mo b ile Sy S t E m S , ap p li c a t I o ns a N d SE r v I c es Sponsored by USENIX in cooperation with LOPSA and SNIA (mo b I Sy S 2010) noVeMber 7–12, 2010, San JoSe, CA, USa Jointly sponsored by ACM SIGMOBILE and USENIX http://www.usenix.org/lisa10 JUne 14–18, 2010, San franciSco, CA, USa Submissions due: May 17, 2010 http://www.sigmobile.org/mobisys/2010/ For a complete list of all USENIX & USENIX co-sponsored events, see http://www.usenix.org/events. feb10covers.indd 2 1.8.10 3:43:19 PM OPINION Musings 2 Rik FarrOw Whither LISA? 7 SeaN kamaTh SYSADMIN Configuration Management Phenomenology 10 Alva COuCh Puppet and Cfengine Compared: Time and Resource Consumption 16 contents JarLe BjørGeeNGeN FILE SYSTEMS Building and Installing a Hadoop/ Mapreduce Cluster from Commodity Components: A Case Study 26 JocheN L. LeIdNer aNd Gary berosik The Case for Specialized File Systems, or, Fighting File System Obesity 38 erez zadOk, vasily Tarasov, aNd PrIya SehGaL SECURity A Look at VoIP Vulnerabilities 41 Angelos d. kerOmytis VOL. 35, #1, February 2010 NetWORKING Taming the Torrent 51 Editor ;login: is the official davId ChoffneS aNd Rik Farrow magazine of the FabIáN e. bustamaNTe USENIX Association. [email protected] SSR: Securing the Internet’s Identifier Managing Editor ;login: (ISSN 1044-6397) is Systems 60 Jane-Ellen Long published bi-monthly by the davId Piscitello [email protected] USENIX Association, 2560 Ninth Street, Suite 215, Copy Editor Berkeley, CA 94710. Steve Gilmartin HARDWARe Peculiarities of Radio Devices 64 [email protected] $90 of each member’s annual rudI vaN druNeN dues is for an annual sub- produCtion scription to ;login:. Subscrip- Casey Henderson tions for nonmembers are ColUmns Practical Perl Tools: You Never Forget Your Jane-Ellen Long $125 per year. Jennifer Peterson First Date (Object) 73 Periodicals postage paid at davId N. BlaNk-edeLmaN typEsEttEr Berkeley, CA, and additional Star Type offices. Pete’s All Things Sun: Crossbow 79 [email protected] POSTMASTER: Send address PeTer baer GaLvin USEniX assoCiation changes to ;login:, iVoyeur: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do 86 2560 Ninth Street, USENIX Association, dave JosePhSeN Suite 215, Berkeley, 2560 Ninth Street, California 94710 Suite 215, Berkeley, /dev/random: Project Management—A Phone: (510) 528-8649 CA 94710. FAX: (510) 548-5738 Primer 90 ©2010 USENIX Association RoberT G. FerreLL http://www.usenix.org http://www.sage.org USENIX is a registered trade- mark of the USENIX Associa- tion. Many of the designations BooK REVieWS Book Reviews 93 used by manufacturers and ElizabeTh zwicky eT aL. sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trade- marks. USENIX acknowledges UseniX NOTES Nominating Committee Report, 2010 all trademarks herein. Where Election for the USENIX Board of Directors 97 those designations appear in rémy evard this publication and USENIX is aware of a trademark claim, Thanks to Our Volunteers 98 the designations have been Ellie Young printed in caps or initial caps. ConfeRenCes Report on LISA ’09: 23rd Large Installation System Administration Conference 100 ;LOGIN: February 2010 arTICLe TITLe 1 FEBRUARY_2010_loginarticles.indd 1 1.8.10 3:22:15 PM I thought I’d take a dIve Into the deep end for my musings this time around. Rik Farrow Maybe Sean Kamath’s “Whither LISA?” (p. 7) got me going on this, or Alva Couch’s own deep dive into phenomenology in system configuration (p. 10). Or perhaps it was the re-reading of Accelerando [1]. Whatever it was, I’ve decided to imagine what life, and musings work, would be like for a senior sysadmin 10 Rik is the Editor of ;login:. years from now. [email protected] Chuck awakens from a recurrent nightmare. He is sitting in a virtual meeting room, having been “promoted” to management, when he gets asked to present his research on fulfilling subsection 11.2.c of ISO 700001:2019 on the labeling of subsapient AIs.