19. Scheduling software is included in the Windows operating system. a) What is a scheduler? b) Give two typical tasks that schedulers perform for us. c) Give two reasons why schedulers are often set to run late at night or in the early hours of the morning. 20. You have a small home area network with five computers attached, which all use the same version of an anti-virus package. Your father complains that it takes a long time (and a lot cap) to update all five computers. Give him a tip on how to solve this problem.
Answer (1)
a) What is a scheduler?
A scheduler in computing is a software component of an operating system that manages the execution of multiple processes by distributing CPU resources among them. It decides which process will run at any given time and for how long. This helps in efficiently utilizing the CPU and ensures a balanced workload.
b) Give two typical tasks that schedulers perform for us.
Process Management: Schedulers allocate CPU time to each process in a system. They decide the order in which processes should be executed, handle their start and stop timings, and switch between processes.
Task Prioritization: Schedulers assign priorities to different tasks or processes, ensuring that critical tasks get more CPU time and are executed efficiently without being delayed by less crucial tasks.
c) Give two reasons why schedulers are often set to run late at night or in the early hours of the morning.
Low System Usage: Running scheduling tasks late at night or early in the morning usually coincides with periods of low system usage. This means fewer active users and processes competing for system resources, thus providing more CPU availability for maintenance tasks.
Minimizing User Disruption: Executing schedules like updates or backups at night avoids interrupting user activity, ensuring a smoother experience during peak usage times in the day.
Tip for updating antivirus software on a home network:
One effective way to manage software updates on multiple computers in a network is to set up a local update server. This involves designating one computer in your network as the main server to download antivirus updates from the internet. The other computers then obtain their updates directly from this local server. This method reduces internet bandwidth usage (cap) and speeds up the update process for all computers using the same antivirus package.
