Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 3.
Platform layer structure
3.2 Platform Layer
The purpose of the platform layer (cf. Figure 3) is to provide a management and
execution infrastructure on which applications can be deployed and
administered. It can be seen that the layer reuses many of the functionalities
of the daemon layer, but introduces a different view. The entry point to the
management functionality is an administration tool called
JCC
(Jadex Control
Center) on an
administration platform
. To perform administration tasks, a user
would typically start a local platform including a JCC. Yet, the choice of the
administration platform is unrestricted as the JCC tool can be executed in prin-
ciple on any platform. Based on local configuration options and user privileges,
the JCC provides access to a subset of the existing nodes called the
cloud view
.
The administrator can choose, which nodes to include in the deployment of an
application, by assigning application components to the platforms running on
the different nodes. To start the separate components, each platform will obtain
the required component implementations from the local, private, or public repos-
itory. Alternatively, e.g. when deploying a new application, the JCC can upload
component implementations to the remote platforms, which store them in their
local repository. During the runtime of an application, the JCC tool can be used
to connect to the platforms hosting the application components. Therefore, an
administrator may at any time inspect the running components as well as alter
the deployment configuration by starting and stopping components.
The operation of the JCC is further exemplified by illustrating the steps nec-
essary to deploy the Mandelbrot application. The vision is that a user selects an
application to deploy and is presented a cloud view of currently available nodes
according to her profile. Based on an optional deployment description with re-
quirements of the application components the system generates a deployment
plan. By applying the plan the application is started creating components on
the selected nodes. This vision as also covered in challenge 4 from the introduc-
tion is currently only partially realized. Once the JCC is started by the user, it
will discover the available nodes based on the daemon layer awareness and filter
them according to user preferences, e.g. a specific IP range. Using the daemon
