On Distributed System Management

Device failures, performance inefficiencies, improper allocation of resources, security compromises, and accounting are some of the problems associated with the operations of distributed systems. Effective management requires monitoring, interpreting and controlling the behavior of the distributed system resources, both hardware and software. Current management systems pursue a platform-centered paradigm, where agents monitor the system and collect data, which can be accessed by applications via management protocols. Some of the fundamental limitations of this paradigm include limited scalability, micromanagement, and semantic heterogeneity. We propose an alternative model, Management by Delegation, and contrast its properties via an application example, evaluating the health of a Distributed System. 1 Introduction As organizations are increasingly dependent on distributed systems they become more exposed to the inherent risks of such complex systems. Failures, performance inefficienc..