2.1 Basic PlateSpin Orchestrate Server, VM Client, and Development Client Terms and Concepts

This section includes the following information:

2.1.1 The Grid

When you configure the PlateSpin Orchestrate Server and its agents, you create an entity called a compute grid. This grid consists of the objects in your network or data center that PlateSpin Orchestrate is responsible for monitoring and managing, including Users, Resources, and Jobs.

2.1.2 Users

For PlateSpin Orchestrate, a user is an individual who authenticates to the Orchestrate Server for the purpose of managing (that is, running, monitoring, canceling, pausing, stopping, or starting) a deployed job, or a user who authenticates through the Orchestrate VM Client to manage virtual machines. The PlateSpin Orchestrate administrator can use the Orchestrate Development Client to identify users who are running jobs and to monitor the jobs that are currently running or that have run during the current server session.

2.1.3 Resources Running the PlateSpin Orchestrate Agent

For PlateSpin Orchestrate, a resource is a computing node somewhere in your network (that is, your grid or data center network), which has a PlateSpin Orchestrate Agent installed on it. When the Orchestrate Agent is installed on a resource, communication between the agent and the PlateSpin Orchestrate Server is established and the computing resource can be discovered and can begin performing jobs that are assigned to it by the Orchestrate Server.

2.1.4 Jobs

For PlateSpin Orchestrate, a job is remotely executable logic that can run on some or all of the resources in the Orchestrate grid. Job logic is written in Python, and can include instructions and policies that dictate how, when, and where that job runs. In addition, the job can embed instructions that dictate processes or applications that the resource needs to launch.

A Job Developer uses Python in a prepackaged Job Definition Language (JDL) editor to create or modify a job. When the job is ready, the administrator of the PlateSpin Orchestrate system uses the Orchestrate Server functionality to deploy it and to allocate appropriate resources to run it, based on its parameters and associated policies.

2.1.5 Typical Use of the Grid

In general, the everyday use of the grid and its components follows this sequence:

  1. Jobs are created using JDL. A job might also optionally reference one or more policies (defined in XML).

  2. The Orchestrate Server is started. It discovers all the available computing resources.

  3. The administrator logs in to the Orchestrate Server and deploys jobs that users can run. The administrator might also create user logins.

  4. Users log in to the Orchestrate Server run jobs.

  5. When a user selects a job to run, he or she runs the job based on selected options; for example, he or she might select when to run the job, how many computing resources the job should run on, the type of computing resources to be used, and so on.

  6. Users monitor and control their own jobs by using certain functions, such as canceling a job, pausing a job, or even changing the priority of a job if they have rights to do so.

  7. Administrators can monitor and control all of the running jobs. They can dynamically change how a job runs, they can change job priorities, and so on.

  8. Steps 5, 6, and 7 can be repeated as long as the Orchestrate Server is running.