The Administration of Distributed Computations in a Networked Environment: An Interim Report

Abstract : Networks of computers running Berkeley UNIX allow users to program and run multiple-process applications that execute concurrently on several machines. We present solutions to the problems of process tracking, administration, and control in this networked computing environment. We have designed and implemented a personal process manager for an enhanced Berkeley UNIX system that provides the user with much needed process management and process control capabilities not found elsewhere. The personal process manager is a distributed program based on a collection of user processes which make use of specialized system daemons. It provides on demand services, allows process control across machine boundaries, and may outlive the user login session in which it was created. When active, it becomes the process creation server for a user's remote processes, collects and preserves basic information about process activities, provides a notion of state of a distributed computation, and interfaces with several data analysis and data representation tools. The personal process manager also has crash recovery facilities.