Tim Connors

The papyrus integrated data server

Summary form only given. The authors focus on the performance of integrated specialized data managers. In particular, they focus on the customizations of parallel executions of data manager operators in a variety of computer configurations. This is done by specifying the glue that connects data manager operators in a way that is independent of the computer configuration; and then providing the ability to transparently target the execution to a variety of computer configurations. Parallelization of data manager operators built using Papyrus services is a challenging problem, but a more challenging problem is the parallelization of data manager operators that are built independently of Papyrus and are therefore black boxes to Papyrus. Papyrus is a set of modules and services that enables the parallelization and integration of specialized data managers into one execution environment. Papyrus programs can be transparently targeted to different hardware configurations and can dynamically adjust at runtime to the number of available resources. A Papyrus System consists of a number of clients interfacing to a Papyrus Server. The Server consists of several integrated data managers executing on a multiprocessor system.<<ETX>>

Real time asset tracking in the data center

The importance and difficultly of asset tracking make it worthy of attention. We focus on data centers consisting of vertical racks where each rack may accommodate a variety of equipment. We describe an asset tracking system which automatically detects and identifies equipment within rack; has “pinpoint” accuracy, i.e., location resolution equals asset size; relays this information to possibly several management back-ends; includes a back-end application that maintains a location history for all equipment; and uses a visualization tool to display both the current state and the history of deployment.The solution features a flexible architecture that simplifies the connection with both existing and future asset management applications. The architecture supports simple configuration, load balancing, and redundancy. Care has been taken to use widely recognized standards wherever possible.

Managing query execution for an advanced database programming language

A method for efficiently managing the execution of a query for an advanced database programming language is demonstrated. It is shown that the mechanism gracefully and efficiently manages control flow in both single-processor and multiprocessor environments. A prototype demonstrating the feasibility of this approach is operational on both single-processor and small-scale multiprocessor systems.<<ETX>>

Equivalence of views by query capacity

Abstract The ability of view users to retrieve information contained in a database is studied. A measure of this ability, called “query capacity,” is introduced and shown to be valuable for defining important concepts concerning views. Three such notions, namely equivalence, redundancy, and decomposition of views, are identified and investigated. A key tool, called “template substitution,” is introduced to aid in these investigations. Among the major results obtained are the following: (1) Characterizations of view equivalence and redundancy in views. (2) The decidability of view equivalence. (3) A technique to eliminate redundancy in views. (4) The decomposition of a view into an essentially unique normal form.

A Self-Configuring Sensing System for Data Centers

Wiring sensors in a data center is extremely expensive in comparison to the wiring of computing equipment. This is due to the central architecture of traditional sensing systems, which requires long wires to be connected between racks and a central box. In addition, a re-layout of the racks after the sensor wires are deployed is practically impossible. We propose using a wireless self-configuring network of smart sensing nodes to alleviate these problems. We explore how to design the sensor control software to be self-reconfiguring when nodes relocate. The software is divided in three layers: network organization, data aggregation and visualization. In this paper, we identify several insights into the thermal monitoring requirements, design issues and initial design solutions for these layers.

The Papyrus query processing engine

This paper describes query processing in the Papyrus integrated data server. Query processing is unique in Papyrus because the underlying language is very powerful (computationally complete), performance on uni-processor systems is not sacrificed in order to support multiprocessor architectures, and queries are self-scheduling in order to support extensibility. A prototype demonstrating the feasibility of this approach is in operation.<<ETX>>

The Papyrus Object Library

The Papyrus Object Library is a set of routines that provide simple access to persistent recoverable storage. It is intended to be used as one of several tools for implementing Data Managers in Papyrus. Three primary goals have shaped the design of the Object Library. The first is flexibility in adapting to Data Manager needs. The Object Library can be used to implement traditional storage managers as well as to provide persistence to programming languages. The second goal is to insulate Data Manager implementors from operating system and file system details without sacrificing performance. Simple localized modifications to one module of the Library can be easily made to take advantage of operating system features that can improve performance such as mapped files or raw I/O. The last goal is to provide high performance. The system is designed to provide very fast access to objects and very efficient allocation and deallocation of objects.

Automating server tracking for data centers

Asset management in state of the art data centers is still a manual process. An automated system to track the location of servers and create a real-time inventory would not only improve operations management but also reduce operational costs. This demo shows a novel application of location aware wireless networks, RFID technology and visualization software integrated in end-to-end system to track servers in a data center.