SynfiniWay

SynfiniWay
Developer(s)	Fujitsu
Stable release	4.0 / September 2010
Operating system	Linux, Unix, Windows
License	commercial
Website	www.synfiniway.com

Last updated June 18, 2019

SynfiniWay was middleware with which a virtualised IT framework can be created that provides a uniform and global view of resources within a department, a company, or a company with its suppliers.^[1] This virtualised IT framework is service-oriented, meaning that applications are run as services, which are a system-independent view of applications. Several applications can be linked in a workflow, and data exchange between the applications participating in the workflow is implicitly managed by the IT framework. SynfiniWay is platform-independent, allowing almost any distributed heterogeneous platform to be linked into its virtualised IT framework.

Middleware is computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue".

Service-orientation is a design paradigm for computer software in the form of services. The principles of service-oriented design stress the separation of concerns in the software. Applying service-orientation results in units of software partitioned into discrete, autonomous, and network-accessible units, each designed to solve an individual concern. These units qualify as services.

IT framework

Schema of framework with two neighborhoods SynfiniWay Framework.png — Schema of framework with two neighborhoods

A virtualised IT framework is implemented with SynfiniWay by installing a component with specific software agents on each of the systems in the framework. There are three major types of components in SynfiniWay:^[2]

In computer science, a software agent is a computer program that acts for a user or other program in a relationship of agency, which derives from the Latin agere : an agreement to act on one's behalf. Such "action on behalf of" implies the authority to decide which, if any, action is appropriate. Agents are colloquially known as bots, from robot. They may be embodied, as when execution is paired with a robot body, or as software such as a chatbot executing on a phone or other computing device. Software agents may be autonomous or work together with other agents or people. Software agents interacting with people may possess human-like qualities such as natural language understanding and speech, personality or embody humanoid form.

Director, which manages end-user connection, authentication & authorisation, and workflow task scheduling and execution.
Service Manager, which publishes and runs services on behalf of users and which executes data migration.
Acquaintance Manager, which links one remote network, known as a SynfiniWay neighborhood, to another to allow resource discovery and file transfer between components residing in different neighbourhoods.

A workflow consists of an orchestrated and repeatable pattern of activity, enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. It can be depicted as a sequence of operations, the work of a person or group, the work of an organization of staff, or one or more simple or complex mechanisms.

Data migration is the process of selecting, preparing, extracting, and transforming data and permanently transferring it from one computer storage system to another. Additionally, the validation of migrated data for completeness and the decommissioning of legacy data storage are considered part of the entire data migration process. Data migration is a key consideration for any system implementation, upgrade, or consolidation, and it is typically performed in such a way as to be as automated as possible, freeing up human resources from tedious tasks. Data migration occurs for a variety of reasons, including server or storage equipment replacements, maintenance or upgrades, application migration, website consolidation, disaster recovery, and data center relocation.

All components are based on Java, so that they can be deployed in a multi-platform environment. An example framework with two neighbourhoods is shown in the figure. Adding or removing components is automatically detected by the framework. The SynfiniWay meta-scheduler automatically adjusts to changes in Service Manager or service availability.

Java (software platform) set of several computer software products and specifications

Java is a set of computer software and specifications developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems, which was later acquired by the Oracle Corporation, that provides a system for developing application software and deploying it in a cross-platform computing environment. Java is used in a wide variety of computing platforms from embedded devices and mobile phones to enterprise servers and supercomputers. Java applets, which are less common than standalone Java applications, were commonly run in secure, sandboxed environments to provide many features of native applications through being embedded in HTML pages. It's still possible to run Java in web browsers after most of them having dropped support for Java's VM.

Service management

SynfiniWay is geared towards service management .^[1] This means that an application or a command that will be utilised is defined as a service and published on the SynfiniWay IT framework. Simple or complex tasks can be abstracted into services for execution. By using these abstracted services, a user can easily run applications or commands regardless of how complex they may be or what underlying IT infrastructure is required. They provide a form of virtualisation of computing resources since the user need not be aware of where the service is available or how it is run.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a style of software design where services are provided to the other components by application components, through a communication protocol over a network. The basic principles of service-oriented architecture are independent of vendors, products and technologies. A service is a discrete unit of functionality that can be accessed remotely and acted upon and updated independently, such as retrieving a credit card statement online.

Workflow management

A technical or business process is created by linking services in a workflow .^[3] Workflows in SynfiniWay are based on WfMC version 1.0. A workflow defines one or more tasks that will be executed with a given execution logic (branch, loop, conditional). SynfiniWay supports multi-instance tasks which run a service multiple times concurrently. Also it supports a workflow of workflows, whereby a workflow can be executed as a task of a higher level workflow.

Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) is a consortium formed to define standards for the interoperability of workflow management systems.

Data handling

Data transfer across several networks Data transfer.png — Data transfer across several networks

Files needed by a service are automatically transferred to the computer executing that service so that the user is freed from having to manage file transfers.^[2] A file transfer mechanism is used allowing files to be transferred directly from the source to the target computer system, going through any number of firewalls between source and target, without being stored on any of the intermediary systems. This mechanism uses the shortest path for transferring files to a target computer from the source.

Meta-scheduling

SynfiniWay employs a meta-scheduling capability,^[4] optimizing computational workloads by combining the multiple distributed Resource Managers an organisation is using, into a single aggregated view, allowing batch jobs to be directed to the best location for execution, using local resource managers such as LSF, PBSPro, SGE, LoadLeveler. SynfiniWay is able to schedule and execute services which are deployed on a mixed interlinked set of local resource managers.

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References

1 2 R. Henry, P. Lagier, D. Plaindoux. FSE Grid Middleware: Collaborative Grid Environment for Distributed Computing, FSTJ, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 269–281, Dec. 2004.
1 2 White Paper on SynfiniWay
↑ SynfiniWay au service du calcul, CAD Magazine 129 (Dec 2005-Jan 2006), p. 18.
↑ K. Suzuki, N. Uchida, H. Kuraishi, J. Wagner. HPC Solutions for the Manufacturing Industry, FSTJ, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 458–466, Oct. 2008.

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[FSTJ1-1] 1 2 R. Henry, P. Lagier, D. Plaindoux. FSE Grid Middleware: Collaborative Grid Environment for Distributed Computing, FSTJ, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 269–281, Dec. 2004.

[WP-2] 1 2 White Paper on SynfiniWay

[CAD-3] SynfiniWay au service du calcul, CAD Magazine 129 (Dec 2005-Jan 2006), p. 18.

[FSTJ2-4] K. Suzuki, N. Uchida, H. Kuraishi, J. Wagner. HPC Solutions for the Manufacturing Industry, FSTJ, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 458–466, Oct. 2008.