Functionality of the Parallel Application Window

Initialization:

There are several initialization for the Java GUI interface before it interacts with users:
  1. Connect to data base through JDBC -- Currently the PostgreSQL data base is installed on the host blueser.cpdc.ece.nwu.edu. Suppose user id is wkliao, a data base named wkliao has been created and the Java GUI should be able to query from this data base.

  2. Find all parallel applications -- A table named application_table has already existed in database wkliao. It stores information for all applications registered in the database including application name, host name (to be run on), path + file name of the execution file, application version, run-time parameter names, and time of registration.

  3. The Name menu -- When users click the Name menu, it should pull down a list of registered application names and users can pick one to run. When users choose a listed application, Java GUI should get the run-time parameters for this application from the data base and display in the following window of Run-Time Parameters. In the example of astro3d, they are nproc, dimZ, dimY, and dimZ. These parameters are required by users' input and will be appended to the command line arguments when running the application.

Parallel Application Window
Figure 1. Parallel Application Window

Running a Registered Application:

Once users choose an application, fill out the run-time parameter values, and click the Run button, the GUI should be able to execute the file on the remote system. For example, a command using remote shell to run astro3d at aixdev on 4 processors can be:

% rsh -l wkliao aixdev codes/Run/astro3d 4 16 16 16

and its output. Another example runs the data analysis program on all data sets of astro3d application using 4 processors:

% rsh -l wkliao aixdev codes/Run/data_analysis 4 astro3d

Or it can be implemented by using other methods to run applications remotely.

  1. Check run-time parameters -- Java GUI should be able to check if the type of users' input values are valid. Take astro3d as an example, the input for three dimension should be all integers. This information should be able to obtain from the data base.

  2. Display the output in the output window -- The application's running output should be re-direct to the Output window. Here is an example of running output of program astro3d.

Register a New Application:

Users can register a new application by clicking the New button. At least following actions should be carried out:
  1. Register new application -- Click New button will pop up a window for users to register a new applications. This window should contains information of running the application: such as application name (to be referred in the future), remote host name, remote user id, path (relative to user's home directory) and file name, version, etc. Java GUI should write these information into application_table in the database.

  2. Run-Time Table -- At least the Run-Time table, run_table, of this new application should be created by the users. Other tables, including dataset_table, access_pattern_table, execution_table, storage_pattern_table, can be created internally by Java GUI. When clicking Create Run-Time Table button, a new pop-up window is shown for users' input on the table's field's names and its initial values (optional).

  3. Other tables -- Given table names, users can create other tables in a similar manner. All tables will be created in the data base with the application name as the prefix.

Last modified on Oct. 19, 1999

Please send comments to wkliao@ece.nwu.edu.