TDP: The Tool Daemon Protocol

Consider a job submitted to a process management system (e.g., Condor, PBS, Globus, MPICH's MPD). The process manager:

  1. starts the job's processes
  2. sets up file I/O and standard I/O
  3. monitors process status
  4. controls the job's processes.

Also, consider a tool wanting to monitor the job. The tool:

  1. also may want to start the job's processes (or attach to them)
  2. also needs to monitor process status
  3. also may want to control the job's processes
  4. also may want access to file I/O and standard I/O.

So, who wins?

Some process management systems address the problem by adding support for specific tools (e.g., MPICH support for Etnus' TotalView debugger). We're heading for an m x n combination of m process managers and n tools.

Bottom line: we need a standard interface between process managers and tools to coexist: The Tool Daemon Protocol (TDP).

TDP talk slides (PTools 2002 Annual Meeting)

TDP document: available soon for review and comment

Please note: this effort is in its formative stages. This page will be updated soon; please check it again.

Last updated: Tue Sep 10 22:29:28 CDT 2002 by pcroth