A Cooperative Approach to Support Software Deployment Using the Software Dock

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A Cooperative Approach to Support Software
Deployment Using the Software Dock

• Presenter Chiyoung Seo

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Contents

• Software Deployment Life Cycle
• Requirements of New Deployment Technologies
• Software Dock Architecture
• Deployable Software Description Format
• Software Dock Processes
• Discussion

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Software Deployment Life Cycle (1/2)

• In the past, just defined as the installation of
  a software system (e.g. CD-ROM)
• The connectivity of large networks is affecting
  the way of software deployment
• Requires much co-operation and negotiation among
  software producers and consumers
• Allows software producers to offer their
  consumers high-level deployment services

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Software Deployment Life Cycle (2/2)
Update
Reconfigure
Adapt
Software Producers
Software Consumers
Release
Retire
Install
Activate
Deactivate
Remove
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Producer-Side Processes

• Release
• Consists of all activities needed to package,
  prepare, provide, and advertise a software system
• Contains both software components and a
  description of a software system
• Retire
• Withdraws support for a software system
• Distinct from the consumer-side remove process

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Consumer-Side Processes (1/2)

• Install
• Initial deployment activity performed by a
  consumer
• Interprets the description of a software system
  and the information about the target consumer
  site
• Activate
• Responsible for making a deployed software system
  executable
• Deactivate
• Inverse of Activate process

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Consumer-Side Processes (2/2)

• Update
• Deploys a new, previously unavailable
  configuration of a deployed software system
• Reconfigure
• Selects a different configuration of a deployed
  software system from its existing description
• Adapt
• Maintains the consistency of the current
  configuration of a deployed software system
• Remove
• Undo all of the changes to the consumer site,
  caused by a given software system

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Contents

• Software Deployment Life Cycle
• Requirements of New Deployment Technologies
• Software Dock Architecture
• Deployable Software Description Format
• Software Dock Processes
• Discussion

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Requirements of New Deployment technologies

• Operate on a variety of platforms and network
  environments
• Provide a semantic model for describing a wide
  range of software systems
• Provide a semantic model of target sites for
  deployment
• Provide decentralized control for both software
  producers and consumers

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Contents

• Software Deployment Life Cycle
• Requirements of New Deployment Technologies
• Software Dock Architecture
• Deployable Software Description Format
• Software Dock Processes
• Discussion

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Software Dock Architecture (1/4)
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Software Dock Architecture (2/4)

• Release dock
• Serves as a release repository for software
  systems
• Each software release is described using a
  standard deployment schema
• Each software release is accompanied with generic
  agents that perform deployment processes
• Provides an interface for agents to access its
  services and content
• Generates events as changes are made to the
  software releases

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JDK 1.1Release
Install Agent
Publish events
Requests the precise set of artifacts
JDK 1.1Release
Subscribes for the events
Install Agent
Update Agent
Informationabout the site
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Software Dock Architecture (3/4)

• Field dock
• Serves as an interface to the consumer site
• Provides information about the state of the
  consumer sites resources and configuration
• Agents from release docks dock themselves at the
  field dock of the target consumer site
• The interface provided is the only interface
  available to an agent

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Software Dock Architecture (4/4)

• Similarities between release and field docks
• Server where agents can dock and perform
  activities
• Manages a standardized, hierarchical registry of
  information
• Nested collections of attribute-value pairs
• Any change to a registry generates an event

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Contents

• Software Deployment Life Cycle
• Requirements of New Deployment Technologies
• Software Dock Architecture
• Deployable Software Description Format
• Software Dock Processes
• Discussion

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DSD Format (1/2)

• Required for automating software deployment
  processes
• Standardized hierarchical schema for describing
  a software system
• Models software systems as collections of
  properties
• Five classes of semantic information
• Configuration
• Describes revisions and variants of a software
  system and resources provided by the software
  system

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DSD Format (2/2)

• Five classes of semantic information
• Assertions
• Describe constraints on consumer-side properties
  that must be true
• Dependencies
• Describe constraints on consumer-side properties
  where a resolution is possible if not satisfied
• Artifacts
• Describe the actual physical artifacts comprising
  the software system
• Activities
• Describe any specialized activities beyond the
  range of deployment processes

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Property Name Version Type String
Description Version information of a software
system Property Name Online Help
Type Boolean Description Include online
help (More definitions of software system
properties) Configuration Title Java
Development Kit Version 1.2 Online Help
true Assertion Condition (OS
Solaris) (OS WinXP) Description
Test for supported operating systems
Artifacts Guard (Online Help true)
Artifact Guard (OS Solaris)
SourceName help.html Source
/proj/doc DestinationName help.html
Destination doc Mutable false
Artifact Guard (OS WinXP)
SourceName help.hlp Source
/proj/doc DestinationName help.hlp
Destination doc Mutable false

An Example of DSD Formats
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Contents

• Software Deployment Life Cycle
• Requirements of New Deployment Technologies
• Software Dock Architecture
• Deployable Software Description Format
• Software Dock Processes
• Discussion

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Software Dock Processes (1/4)

• Generic deployment process definition
• Install, update, reconfigure, adapt, remove
  processes
• Characterized as the transformation of one
  configuration into another valid configuration
• Given a new set of valid property values,
• Transform its current configuration into the new
  configuration by performing differential
  processing
• E.g. version change from 1.0 to 1.1

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Software Dock Processes (2/4)

• Specific deployment process definition
• Install agent
• First, retrieve the current DSD specification for
  a software
• Then, query the field dock and the user to
  determine the configuration of the software
  release
• Finally, perform the actions of testing
  assertions, resolving dependencies, retrieving
  artifacts

Configuration editor for users
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Software Dock Processes (3/4)

• Update agent
• Deploy a new, previously unavailable
  configuration of a deployed software
• The new configuration is provided in an updated
  DSD specification
• Retrieve the new DSD specification from its
  release dock

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Software Dock Processes (4/4)

• Reconfigure agent
• Not retrieving a new DSD specification
• Manipulates the existing DSD specification of the
  deployed software
• Adapt agent
• Maintains the consistency of a deployed software
  release
• Remove agent
• Responsible for removing a deployed software
  release

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Contents

• Software Deployment Life Cycle
• Requirements of New Deployment Technologies
• Software Dock Architecture
• Deployable Software Description Format
• Software Dock Processes
• Discussion

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Discussion (1/2)

• Pros.
• Suggested and explained the life cycle of
  software deployment that hasnt been considered
  before
• The first work to consider the large network
  connectivity in deploying software systems
• Cons.
• Not dealing with security issues enough
• Not considering the overhead of the deployment
  framework
• How to deploy distributed, coordinated software
  systems

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Discussion (2/2)

• Relevance to embedded systems
• How to update the configuration of a deployed
  software system in highly distributed
  environments
• Need more lightweight deployment framework in
  resource constrained portable devices
• How to redeploy software components interacting
  each other over resource constrained portable
  devices during runtime
• Based on network reliability, battery power
• In real time systems, is the event-based system
  for update process appropriate?

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A particular access point
Publish events
Subscribes for the events
Install Agent
Update Agent
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Battery 20
Battery 80
Battery 70
A sample deployment architecture with 5 hosts and
40 components (from Sam Maleks paper)