Dynamic Process Management in CLAM

The dynamic management of processes is a fundamental task in distributed applications. In its general form it must encompass specialized models of parallel programming such as Task Farming models or Parallel Client/Server models, and must also provide for important features such as fault tolerance and load balancing. But despite the significance of dynamic process management, there is no portable and efficient framework that defines and supports a general functionality, particularly for multithreaded distributed computing. In response to this need, we present a portable and efficient process management module in the context of the Clam (connectionless, lightweight, and multiway) threads-based system for distributed operations on heterogeneous networks. We present a process management module that supports a wide range of services, including process naming, dynamic process creation, pid-based message routing, process sign-off, system shutdown, I/O redirection, and signal delivery. We des..