Software tool construction for deployment of JMX services in distributed testbeds

The paper presents a practical approach to construction of a software tool, which will be suitable for deployment of Java components in distributed and heterogeneous testbeds. Requirements of such a system are identified, and a suitable architecture, which is scalable and allows the installation and starting Java applications on chosen computational nodes, is proposed. The modular architecture of the constructed system is based on JMX (Java management extensions), which require packaging each Java component as an MBean and providing a deployment descriptor for it in the form of an XML MLet file. Such an approach can be applied to building a lightweight framework for Java applications and services using only one Java virtual machine per computational node, where each component is installed and started in the same JVM, thus limiting valuable resource consumption. This approach cannot be useful for end-user applications without additional services allowing it to control and manage the deployed modules. Some of them include standard JMX services, such as the MLet service (for dynamic loading), while some have to be developed specifically for the purpose of operating in distributed testbeds. A detailed discussion of the system requirements, architecture of the implemented system called JIMS, built on the top of JMX core components are presented in this paper