Interoperable run-time tools for distributed systems -: A case study

Tools that observe and manipulate the run-time behavior of parallel and distributed systems are essential for developing and maintaining these systems. Users would even, prefer environments of multiple tools in order to have a higher functionality at their disposal. Today, tools developed independently by different vendors are not able to interoperate. Interoperability not only allows concurrent use of tools, but also can lead to an added value for the user. A debugger interoperating with a checkpointing system, for example, can provide a debugging environment where the debugged program can be reset to any previous state. Using this example scenario, we derive requirements that should be met by Me tools' software infrastructure in order to enable interoperability. A review of existing infrastructures shows that these requirements are only partially met today. Ongoing research aims at supporting the requirements in the OMIS compliant monitoring system OCM.