wood@cs.cornell.edu (Mark D. Wood) (07/07/90)
A new technical report entitled
Tools for Distributed Application Management
authored by Keith Marzullo, Robert Cooper, Mark Wood and Ken
Birman is now available from Cornell University as TR 90-1136.
It may be obtained via anonymous ftp from cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu
(binary mode; dam.dvi.Z or dam.ps.Z for the compressed DVI and
Postscript versions, respectively). Alternatively, if
electronic access is not possible, a copy may be obtained by
writing to:
Publications Assistant
Department of Computer Science
Upson Hall
Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853
Abstract:
Distributed application management consists of monitoring and
controlling an application as it executes in a distributed
environment. It encompasses such activities as configuration,
initialization, performance monitoring, resource scheduling, and
failure response.
In this paper we describe the Meta system: a collection of tools
for constructing distributed application management software.
Meta provides the {\em mechanism}, while the programmer
specifies the {\em policy} for application management. The
policy is manifested as a {\em control program} which is a soft
real-time reactive program. The underlying application is
instrumented with a variety of built-in and user-defined sensors
and actuators. These define the interface between the control
program and the application. The control program also has
access to a database describing the structure of the application
and the characteristics of its environment.
Some of the more difficult problems for application management
occur when pre-existing, nondistributed programs are integrated
into a distributed application for which they may not have been
intended. Meta allows management functions to be retrofitted to
such programs with a minimum of effort.