[Vrs-development] Re: Discussion plans and GW stuff

[Ian Fung]

Chris,

There are two things I'd like to address. This is a long email, but
important. so if it gets boring, please go get a cup of coffee and then
come back to read it =).

The first is the discussion plans you listed. Eric and I met on saturday
for a brief meeting. We just basically talked about what each of the
Managers' functionality was. The reason for that was I thought it would
be best if we decided to start designing. So we came up with the about
the same lists that you did. 

I think it would be wise to meet before we completely finish the design.
Eric and I were talking about writing a list of requirements for the
part we're working on. 

For example:

Resource(Repository?) Manager

Stage 1 (initial rollout)
a) Unsychronized, non-consistent data repository
b) File system structure implemented
c) No security (ie users of the LDS can go into the 

The goal is to lay out the connections between the RM and all other
Managers. also it is to implement the structure and API for the
distributed file system so other parts of the VRS can use it to develop.
As I like to say, all under-the-hood intelligence is not there in this
iteration.

Stage 2 ---> Infinity
a) Sychronization
b) Consistency
c) Anonymity
d) Scalability
e) Security
f) Auditing ? (this was never mentioned but i just thought of it)

The reason there is only stage 2 after the initial rollout is because we
dont have a timeline. I understand that this is an open source project
and we dont have developers on this 24/7. we should really have a plan
if for no other reason than realize that we're behind our own made up
schedule. it will also give us and everyone else a sense of where each
of us are in the whole picture.

So I was thinking about doing the RM, and Eric said he would check out
the Service Manager. He also said he would work on the CM, but I assume
you were going to do most of that because of Goldwater's involvement in
there. On the design specs Bill had mentioned the use of a Network Port
Manager. The idea seemed necessary because for no other reason than to
manage the port usage of all the webservices (EODs) in the SM. Anyways,
talk to Eric about the CM. 


The second thing I'd like to talk about is Goldwater. I went to the site
and read all the documentation on Goldwater (well.. ok some of it I only
skimmed.) I think I have a good idea of what it does. The questions that
Eric and I keep running up against while we were trying to list
requirements and define how each part worked was "Does GW already do
that for us?" It would be very very useful if we all become guru's on GW
also. Actually, I think its necessary that we do become very familiar
with GW. We need to know what it does, how it does them, and how we can
change/add to its functionality. 

I'm going to say something and don't take it the wrong way chris, but i
dont want the design of vrs to be limited by the decisions made by
goldwater. for example, the whole deal about the dynamic discovery. of
course i understand that whatever design decisions gw makes is a
reflection of your decisions too, which is fine. but i see us getting
into a dangerous area where there is a good idea and everyone thinks its
a good idea but the only thing preventing us from implementing it is
that goldwater doesn't support it. i'm not sure on where your stance is
on maybe modifying gw and adding extra functionality to it.

this is not a problem at all. i just wanted you to know what i was
thinking. that's the way i am, if i see something i just let you know.
so its not like i think this is a big problem or anything. sorry if i
came on too strong.

so this is the timeline i'm thinking for the immediate future.

1. write requirements for all the parts of VRS
2. meet to talk about those requirements
3. meet to learn about goldwater
4. design each of the parts
5. implement initial rollout

I'm thinking 1-3 should all happen within in the next 3 weeks. then
maybe another 1-2 weeks for 4 (design). then i guess we'll go from there
to see how long we expect stage 1 to be complete.

thanks for listening,

-alias