All,
In the company I work for, we have had an ongoing debate over several
years regarding the management of Resource Managers and Schedulers like
SGE, TORQUE and MAUI, MOAB, etc. The basic difference comes in whether
or not these software technologies should be or are considered as
middle-ware or system software. Thus, as middle-ware, user communities
would/could be responsible for their administration and management.
While on the other hand, if it is considered system software, it would
be the IS/IT organizations' responsibility to administer and maintain.
My argument has always been that it is these software technologies that
establish clusters from disparate building block systems to create a new
meta-system if you will. And that as such, these technologies provide
similar functionality as RMs and Schedulers at the building block system
level and therefore should be considered systems software. Further, all
the documentation and books that I have read regarding cluster
architecture suggest (but are not specific) that these software
technologies are considered necessary to establish the cluster,
regardless of whether or not applications are to be executed on the
cluster. And, in fact this is clearly the case.
Others in our organization argue that because these technologies are NOT
delivered with the building block systems as part of their Operation
System software or libraries, they play more the function of many
middle-ware products today and should be considered middle-ware.
Doesn't middle-ware by definition facilitate some interaction between
applications and the system other than the use of normal operating
system or file system services? I would consider packages such as
Websphere, Java, Oracle in some cases, and even VMWARE as middle-ware.
As users of these technologies, I am interested to know how you: 1)
define these technologies; and 2) manage them within your
organizations...IT or User groups. All inputs are welcome.
Thanks,
Stewart
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