Technical Overview
Service-Oriented Infrastructure
SynfiniWay is a service-oriented software platform for collaborative computing. It comprises a set of components that interact to hide the complexities of any distributed or grid IT infrastructure, and to manage the scheduling of tasks and the automatic data movement between desktop and servers. All components are written in Java™ for maximum portability on Windows®, Linux and UNIX systems.
SynfiniWay easily integrates within the existing application landscape, below the end-user layer and above the applications, batch system, operating system commands, storage and network operations. The end-user connects once to SynfiniWay with a single sign-on, after which all other eligible IT resources are accessed through services.
A service contains all information needed to define the environment under which an action will run and any user parameters that are needed or allowed for execution of the service; eg.: what application to run, what directory to start in, mode of execution (interactive or batch). Most existing applications can easily be embodied into a service definition and be made available to SynfiniWay end-users.
SynfiniWay links the services to create a workflow, the main execution unit. This is a mechanism which allows one or more services to be linked together to form a chain of work. This is particularly useful when certain applications (or services) have data dependencies or sequence dependencies on each other (such as solve 2 runs after solve 1 completes). Workflows can be as simple as running one application or can be complex, allowing for simultaneous parallel chains of applications to be run. Conditional branching and loops ensure that almost any business process can be mapped.
When services are incorporated into a workflow we designate them as a task. Thus a task becomes an instantiation of a service which is executing or will be executed in a workflow. Tasks are what the SynfiniWay meta-scheduler uses as the unit of scheduling within the SynfiniWay framework.
Resource Virtualisation
Resources can be utilized by end-users regardless of their location. The resources that are available to end-users typically consist of applications, storage, clusters and servers.
Storage areas on systems running a SynfiniWay Director or Service Manager can be configured so as to enable access for end-users via their Client user interface and via their workflows. Any storage area that is provided in this manner can be accessed as long as the user has been given authority to use the storage area. A user with permission to use a storage area on a Service Manager can run workflows that use that area for input or output of task data.
Cluster systems and/or servers are used when services are run by the workflow manager. The SynfiniWay scheduler and workflow manager are aware of where each service can be run and chooses the most appropriate system to execute the workflow task. Thus end-users will have access to these systems whenever they run workflows.
