A Generic Deployment Framework for Grid Computing and Distributed Applications

Deployment of distributed applications on large systems, and especially on grid infrastructures, becomes a more and more complex task. Grid users spend a lot of time to prepare, install and configure middleware and application binaries on nodes, and eventually start their applications. The problem is that the deployment process is composed of many heterogeneous tasks that have to be orchestrated in a specific correct order. As a consequence, the automatization of the deployment process is currently very difficult to reach. To address this problem, we propose in this paper a generic deployment framework allowing to automatize the execution of heterogeneous tasks composing the whole deployment process. Our approach is based on a reification as software components of all required deployment mechanisms or existing tools. Grid users only have to describe the configuration to deploy in a simple natural language instead of programming or scripting how the deployment process is executed. As a toy example, this framework is used to deploy CORBA component-based applications and OpenCCM middleware on one thousand nodes of the French Grid5000 infrastructure.Comment: The original publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co

The SPAN cookbook: A practical guide to accessing SPAN

This is a manual for remote users who wish to send electronic mail messages from the Space Physics Analysis Network (SPAN) to scientific colleagues on other computer networks and vice versa. In several instances more than one gateway has been included for the same network. Users are provided with an introduction to each network listed with helpful details about accessing the system and mail syntax examples. Also included is information on file transfers, remote logins, and help telephone numbers

Accessing files in an Internet: The Jade file system

Jade is a new distribution file system that provides a uniform way to name and access files in an internet environment. It makes two important contributions. First, Jade is a logical system that integrates a heterogeneous collection of existing file systems, where heterogeneous means that the underlying file systems support different file access protocols. Jade is designed under the restriction that the underlying file system may not be modified. Second, rather than providing a global name space, Jade permits each user to define a private name space. These private name spaces support two novel features: they allow multiple file systems to be mounted under one directory, and they allow one logical name space to mount other logical name spaces. A prototype of the Jade File System was implemented on Sun Workstations running Unix. It consists of interfaces to the Unix file system, the Sun Network File System, the Andrew File System, and FTP. This paper motivates Jade's design, highlights several aspects of its implementation, and illustrates applications that can take advantage of its features

Helping out by helping in : approaches to electronic submission of coursework

In this paper, we seek to address a range of issues that affect the use and applicability of electronic coursework submission. Key among these issues is the need to characterise the available mechanisms for supporting such submission. Allied to this, we require an appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses that would enable us to distinguish and choose wisely among the alternatives

Integration, management and communication of heterogeneous design resources with WWW technologies

Recently, advanced information technologies have opened new pos-sibilities for collaborative designs. In this paper, a Web-based collaborative de-sign environment is proposed, where heterogeneous design applications can be integrated with a common interface, managed dynamically for publishing and searching, and communicated with each other for integrated multi-objective de-sign. The CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) is employed as an implementation tool to enable integration and communication of design application programs; and the XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is used as a common data descriptive language for data exchange between heterogeneous applications and for resource description and recording. This paper also intro-duces the implementation of the system and the encapsulating issues of existing legacy applications. At last, an example of gear design based on the system is il-lustrated to identify the methods and procedure developed by this research

Unifying Internet Services Using Distributed Shared Objects

Developing wide area applications such as those for sharing data across the Internet is unnecessarily difficult. The main problem is the widespread use of a communication paradigm that is too low level. We will show how wide area application development can be made easier when using distributed shared objects instead of a communication-oriented model. An object in our model is physically distributed, with multiple copies of its state on different machines. All implementation aspects such as replication, distribution, and migration of state, are hidden from users through an object's interface. In this paper, we concentrate on the application of distributed shared objects, by providing an outline of a middleware solution that permits integration of the Internet services for e-mail, News, file transfer, and Web documents. vrije Universiteit Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science 1 Introduction Constructing wide area applications, such as those for sharing data across the Internet,..

Automating Record Loading—An Implementation Story

If loading record files is consuming more and more of your library’s time and effort, learn from our experience in automating record loading at the University of Tennessee. Like most libraries, the University of Tennessee Libraries (UTL) has loaded files of order and bibliographic (bib) records into our Integrated Library System (ILS) for years. In 2012, we automated this process by writing loaders that look for these record files and load them into our Ex Libris Aleph ILS without staff intervention. We began the project with Yankee Book Peddler (YBP), one of our major vendors, and the result has been positive and significant—with a few bumps in implementation. This paper covers the process from three perspectives: systems, vendor, and technical services. From a systems librarian, hear about writing the loaders—the decisions we made and factors we considered. From a vendor, see how vendors can support this kind of project, and learn a few tips to make the process easier. From a technical services librarian, learn how staff worked to implement the process, check the results, and revise our workflows. We’ll share the problems we encountered, and the changes that we—systems, vendor, technical services—made together to get the project on track

Remote MIB-item look-up service

Despite some deficiencies, the Internet management framework is widely deployed and thousands of management information base (MIB) modules have been defined thus far. These modules are used by implementers of agent software, as well as by managers and management applications, to understand the syntax and semantics of the management information that may be exchanged. At the manager's side, MIB modules are usually stored in separate files, which are maintained by the human manager and read by the management application. Since maintenance of this file repository can be cumbersome, management applications are often confronted with incomplete and outdated information. To solve this "meta-management" problem, this paper discusses the design of a remote look-up service for MIB-item definitions. Such a service facilitates the retrieval of missing MIB module definitions, as well as definitions of individual MIB-items. Initially the service may be provided by a single server, but other servers can be added at later stages to improve performance and prevent copyright problems. It is envisaged that vendors of network equipment will also install servers, to distribute their vendor specific MIB. The paper describes how the service, which is provided on a best effort basis, can be accessed by managers/management applications, and how servers inform each other about the MIB modules they support