Rules and agents for automated management of distributed systems

The heterogeneity, increasing size and complexity of distributed systems impede management strategies that deal with the system as a coherent entity. In this article we describe an experimental study with a comprehensive and partially automated approach to distributed systems management. In our distributed environment management policies are represented by rules. Interpretation of the rules and automated activation of appropriate management tools were delegated to the process-centred software development environment Marvel. Rule chaining is supported in forward and backward directions. The encapsulation feature of Marvel allows an easy integration of prefabricated management tools. Monitoring and event creation are provided by generic monitoring agents. The behaviour of an agent is completely controlled by an initialization file and via invocations at its management interface. ANSAware is used as the distributed platform for the implementation of the generic smart agent concept.