| Abstract: | The dramatic growth of distributed computing applications is creating both an opportunity and a daunting challenge for users
seeking to build applications that will play critical roles in their organization. Here, we discuss the use of a new system,
Astrolabe, to automate self-configuration, monitoring, and to control adaptation. Astrolabe operates by creating a virtual
system-wide hierarchical database, which evolves as the underlying information changes. Astrolabe is secure, robust under
a wide range of failure and attack scenarios, and imposes low loads even under stress. To focus the discussion, we structure
it around a hypothetical Web Services scenario. One of the major opportunities created by Astrolabe is to allow Web Services
client systems to autonomically adapt when a data center becomes slow or unreachable.
The authors were supported by Intel Corporation, DARPA/AFRL grant RADC F30602-99-1-0532, by AFOSR/MURI grant F49620-02-1-0233,
Microsoft Research BARC and the Cornell/AFRL Information Assurance Institute. |
