ADEM: Automating deployment and management of application software on the Open Science Grid

In grid environments, the deployment and management of application software presents a major practical challenge for end users. Performing these tasks manually is error-prone and not scalable to large grids. In this work, we propose an automation tool, ADEM, for grid application software deployment and management, and demonstrate and evaluate the tool on the Open Science Grid. ADEM uses Globus for basic grid services, and integrates the grid software installer Pacman. It supports both centralized ¿prebuild¿ and on-site ¿dynamic-build¿ approaches to software compilation, using the NMI Build and Test system to perform central prebuilds for specific target platforms. ADEM´s parallel workflow automatically determines available grid sites and their platform ¿signatures¿, checks for and integrates dependencies, and performs software build, installation, and testing. ADEM´s tracking log of build and installation activities is helpful for troubleshooting potential exceptions. Experimental results on the Open Science Grid show that ADEM is easy to use and more productive for users than manual operation.