| 1 |
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> |
| 2 |
|
| 3 |
<!-- |
| 4 |
probdomain.shtml |
| 5 |
Created by tdb1 30/10/2000 |
| 6 |
Last edited 30/10/2000 |
| 7 |
--> |
| 8 |
|
| 9 |
|
| 10 |
<html> |
| 11 |
|
| 12 |
<head> |
| 13 |
<title>The i-scream Project Problem Domain</title> |
| 14 |
<meta name="description" content="The i-scream Project is a central monitoring system for Unix, Linux and NT servers."> |
| 15 |
<meta name="keywords" content="i-scream, project, central monitoring system, unix, linux, nt, server, alert"> |
| 16 |
<meta name="generator" content="notepad on acid, aye."> |
| 17 |
</head> |
| 18 |
|
| 19 |
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" link="#0000ff" alink="#3333cc" vlink="#3333cc" text="#000066"> |
| 20 |
|
| 21 |
<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"> |
| 22 |
<tr> |
| 23 |
<td valign="top"> |
| 24 |
<!--#include virtual="left.inc" --> |
| 25 |
</td> |
| 26 |
<td valign="top"> |
| 27 |
<!--#include virtual="title.inc" --> |
| 28 |
|
| 29 |
<table border="0" width="500"> |
| 30 |
<tr> |
| 31 |
<td> |
| 32 |
<font size="2" face="arial,sans-serif"> |
| 33 |
|
| 34 |
<center><h3>Original Problem</h3></center> |
| 35 |
|
| 36 |
<p align="justify"> |
| 37 |
This is the original specification we were given when we took |
| 38 |
on the project, and it seems an ideal basis for the problem |
| 39 |
domain. |
| 40 |
</p> |
| 41 |
|
| 42 |
<center><h3>Centralised Machine Monitoring</h3></center> |
| 43 |
|
| 44 |
<p align="justify"> |
| 45 |
The Computer Science deparment has a number of different machines |
| 46 |
running a variety of different operating systems. One of the tasks |
| 47 |
of the systems administrators is to make sure that the machines |
| 48 |
don't run out of resources. This involves watching processor loads, |
| 49 |
available disk space, swap space, etc. |
| 50 |
</p> |
| 51 |
|
| 52 |
<p align="justify"> |
| 53 |
It isn't practicle to monitor a large number of machines by logging |
| 54 |
on and running commands such as 'uptime' on the unix machines, or |
| 55 |
by using performance monitor for NT servers. Thus this project is |
| 56 |
to write monitoring software for each platform supported which |
| 57 |
reports resource usage back to one centralized location. System |
| 58 |
Administrators would then be able to monitor all machines from this |
| 59 |
centralised location. |
| 60 |
</p> |
| 61 |
|
| 62 |
<p align="justify"> |
| 63 |
Once this basic functionality is implemented it could usefully be |
| 64 |
expanded to include logging of resource usage to identify longterm |
| 65 |
trends/problems, alerter services which can directly contact |
| 66 |
sysadmins (or even the general public) to bring attention to problem |
| 67 |
areas. Ideally it should be possible to run multiple instances of |
| 68 |
the reporting tool (with all instances being updated in realtime) |
| 69 |
and to to be able to run the reporting tool as both as stand alone |
| 70 |
application and embeded in a web page. |
| 71 |
</p> |
| 72 |
|
| 73 |
<p align="justify"> |
| 74 |
This project will require you to write code for the unix and Win32 |
| 75 |
APIs using C and knowledge of how the underlying operating systems |
| 76 |
manage resources. It will also require some network/distributed |
| 77 |
systems code and a GUI front end for the reporting tool. It is |
| 78 |
important for students undertaking this project to understand the |
| 79 |
importance of writing efficient and small code as the end product |
| 80 |
will really be most useful when machines start run out of processing |
| 81 |
power/memory/disk. |
| 82 |
</p> |
| 83 |
|
| 84 |
<p align="justify"> |
| 85 |
John Cinnamond (email jc) whose idea this is, will provide technical |
| 86 |
support for the project. |
| 87 |
</p> |
| 88 |
|
| 89 |
</font> |
| 90 |
</td> |
| 91 |
</tr> |
| 92 |
</table> |
| 93 |
|
| 94 |
<!--#include virtual="bottom.inc" --> |
| 95 |
</td> |
| 96 |
</tr> |
| 97 |
</table> |
| 98 |
|
| 99 |
</body> |
| 100 |
|
| 101 |
</html> |
