Automated Planning for Configuration Changes

Herry, H., Anderson, P. and Wickler, G. (2011) Automated Planning for Configuration Changes. In: 25th International Conference on Large Installation System Administration, Boston, MA, USA, 04-09 Dec 2011, ISBN 978931971881

Abstract

This paper describes a prototype implementation of a configuration system which uses automated planning techniques to compute workflows between declarative states. The resulting workflows are executed using the popular combination of ControlTier and Puppet. This al- lows the tool to be used in unattended “autonomic” situ- ations where manual workflow specification is not feasi- ble. It also ensures that critical operational constraints are maintained throughout the execution of the work- flow. We describe the background to the configuration and planning techniques, the architecture of the proto- type, and show how the system deals with several exam- ples of typical reconfiguration problems.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Keywords: Configuration management, infrastructure, cloud computing, planning, IaaS.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Herry, Dr Herry
• Authors: Herry, H., Anderson, P., and Wickler, G.
• Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• ISBN: 978931971881
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2011 The USENIX Association
• First Published: First published in Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Large Installation System Administration (LISA '11)
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy