Overview of Grid Plug-ins

Isight implements its own framework for distributing parts of an application over a network for execution; some parts will not run outside of that framework. Despite this restriction, it is often desirable that Isight be able to distribute some parts for execution entirely outside of this framework.

Reasons for distributing parts of an application outside the Isight framework may include:

  • You may already be adapted to another distribution framework and prefer not to make major procedural changes.

  • You may not wish to install the Isight framework throughout your network for cost or security reasons.

  • Your framework may distribute work more effectively than Isight’s framework.

  • Your framework may provide better job control or better auditing data.

To run an external program outside of Isight using some other framework, Isight includes the Grid plug-in. The Isight framework and the component will cooperate with the grid plug-in to package each run of the program and hand it off to the other framework, using that framework’s tools to monitor the program and waiting for it to finish, and bring the results back into Isight.

The standard Isight components OS Command and Simcode, which are used to execute arbitrary programs, have already been built to support Grid plug-ins, as has the standard component that uses Abaqus. Anyone who builds a custom component to drive some program may also choose to create Grid support. This section describes what must be done to implement a Grid plug-in for an arbitrary framework.

Important: Java programming is required to perform this implementation.

The program that is executed via a Grid plug-in must be able to be run in its entirety from a command line. The program must not require user interaction. Since it can be executed on a system having no display or one that is behind a firewall, it must not require interaction through a graphical interface (GUI).

Note: Although you may be able to build such a program by combining an interactive tool with a scripted tool driver (such as Expect), doing so is not recommended.