Tools for Software Packaging and Distribution
Sections
As this and other sections of this website demonstrate, the Grid Ecosystem currently includes a large number of components, each of which provides fairly narrow capabilities. Building a useful Grid application or system for end users currently requires pulling together many of these components, adding another set of application-specific components, and deploying and configuring everything in a specific way on a set of physical resources to produce the desired results.
The ability to "roll up" a set of components, deploy them on a set of resources and configure them in a specific way is critical to the success of nearly every Grid project. In the early stages of Grid projects, system developers typically start with pre-existing distributions that include many Grid components, like the "Integrated Distributions" listed below. As projects transition to the "production" or "operation and maintenance" phase, however, system operators typically insist on deploying and supporting the bare minimum set of components required by the applications in use in order to keep support costs low. In these cases, the distribution and packaging tools listed below (designed to help produce customized distributions) can be very helpful.
Distribution and Packaging Tools
These tools support getting software distributed and installed uniformly throughout a broad collaboration. They help create integrated distributions that work on a wide variety of systems.
- PACMAN - A tool for producing consistent software deployments on many systems
- Grid Packaging Tools (GPT) - A portable software packaging system
These are integrated distributions of common Grid software designed to meet the needs of various communities.
- NSF Middleware Initiative (NMI) - An integrated distribution of reusable Grid software used in NSF's Cyberinfrastructure programs
- Rocks - An all-in-one management system and software suite for Linux clusters
- Virtual Data Toolkit (VDT) - A software distribution focusing on the needs of the distributed Astronomy and Physics communities