A Resource Management System Based on the ODP Trader Concepts and X.500

Abstract

Distributed computing systems are composed of various types of hardware and software resources. Providing a reliable and efficient distributed computing environment largely depends on the effective management of these resources and the services that they provide. ISO has begun work on a proposed standard for Open Distributed Processing (ODP). The ODP framework includes a mechanism called the Trader which provides a framework for exchanging services in an open distributed computing environment. This paper presents a design of a resource information management system which employs and extends the ODP Trader concepts to facilitate the management and use of resources, information about resources and the services provided by the resources. We describe the architecture, information model, and user interface of the resource management system. We also describe a prototype implementation which uses the X.500 Directory Service as its repository for resource information and report on our experien..