Good Reads for Distributed Systems

Question

I am working on a server system that going to have a distributed architecture. Can anyone recommend some good (titles|urls|blogs) on programming distributed architectures, P2P, Master/Slave, etc..?

It will be implemented in WCF.

Answer 1

Enterprise Integration Patterns by Gregor Hohpe is a fantastic book, if you are interested in distributing your your system using asynchronous messaging (which you should at least explore).

A good blog for .NET developers interesting in messaging is Udi Dahan's blog. I would also consider checking out Sam Gentile's blog.

If your distributed application needs to be scalable and will use the web, listen to this fantastic podcast featuring Udi Dahan.

Pro WCF - Practical Microsoft SOA is a decent book on WCF, and has good chapters on using WCF for Async Messaging (MSMQ) as well as P2P and a very lucid, very necessary discussion of versioning data contracts and service contracts in WCF. The book is not really a stellar book about SOA (it's really just about WCF, with the word SOA tossed in here and there) but a few topics (like those mentioned above) are covered well enough as to make the book still quite valuable.

Answer 2

The July MSDN Magazine has a nice introductory article on WCF P2P.

Answer 3

i'd also recommend you listen to the Automated Infrastructure issue of the Technometria podcast.

it's more about how to maintain and distribute your system in an automatic manner, rather than about the distributed systems themselves ... but this is very related, and you don't even have to read it ;)

Answer 4

A bit old now, but Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture by Martin Fowler covers a lot of sound principles. Also check out ebay architect Dan Pritchett's blog.

Answer 5

I would take a look at Learning WCF by Michele Bustamante. IT explains all the basics and walks you through progressively more complex samples. She is one of the chief architects at iDesign (www.iDesign.net), a useful site in it's own right. The book has it's own blog with updates and code samples at (www.thatindigogirl.com) and the author has her own blog on various related topics at www.dasblonde.net, in case you want to check it out before you buy. The book urini suggested is by one of the other architects at iDesign Juval Lowy and it's very useful as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-WCF-Hands-Michele-Bustamante/dp/0596101627/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221003981&sr=8-1

it's well worth the $25 bucks, but you may be able to find it cheaper elsewhere like abebooks.com depending on stock.

Answer 6

For concepts have a look at Distributed systems by Andrew Tannenbaum & Maarten van Steen.