oh, the joys of working late at the weekend.... ( a little disclaimer just in case anyone thinks I make a habit of reading mailing lists at 10:00 on a saturday night. )
On 27 Oct 2001, at 12:40, Stephen Adkins wrote: > Hi, > > I propose the following definitions and computing platforms for > the P5EE initiative. The main thing I wanted to do was propose > the range of platforms that P5EE-compliant software should run > on (see at bottom). Thoughts are welcome. > > Stephen > > The following definitions are excerpted from > > http://www.officevision.com/pub/p5ee/enterprise.html > > Definitions > > Simply put, something in the realm of computing becomes an "Enterprise" > thing when it is worthy of and suitable for use in large enterprises. > For the purposes of this P5EE specification, the following definitions > will be used. > > * Enterprise System - Enterprise Software running on an Enterprise > Platform > * Enterprise Solution - same as an Enterprise System, but emphasizing > that the system solves an Enterprise Problem > * Enterprise Software - Software that solves an Enterprise Problem > (rather than a departmental one) and that is written with an > Enterprise Software Architecture > * Enterprise Software Architecture - A Software Architecture which > allows software to exhibit all of the attributes of an Enterprise > System when run on an Enterprise Platform > * Enterprise Platform - A set of computing and networking resources > which enable installed Enterprise Software to exhibit the full > attributes of an Enterprise System (most often referring to > availability, scalability, and reliability) > > The following platform descriptions are excerpted from > > http://www.officevision.com/pub/p5ee/platform.html > > The following computing platforms are defined. > They are not all Enterprise Platforms. > However, they are all platforms which P5EE software should run on. > This is because P5EE software will often be developed, demonstrated, > evaluated, or even operated initially on these platforms. I'm Not sure I really agree that the full p5ee should run on all of these. ( some elements of it might ). I would have thought that p5ee would have supported both asynchronous and synchronous activity. Quite how you would do this with normal CGI I don't know. I could be wrong, but I always assumed that a broken http connection would result in a termination of the application. To some degree I think it depends on the choice of a base architecture. I've heard mention of CORBA and mod_perl so far. If mod_perl were chosen, then I would have thought it more likley that at least a two tier web serving architecture would be in place, with one tier doing the static stuff, and another doing the perl based work. ( see: http://perl.apache.org/tuning/ ) Of course, two tier web serving isn't necessary, but I think it would be desirable. Perhaps a more reasonable strategy ( for a full install ) would be root access on a single box? Cheers, Steve. > The software may be upgraded to an Enterprise Platform at any time. > This will be one of the major advantages of the P5EE Software > Architecture: its support for a variety of Platforms. > > Platform Overview > > * CGI only, Single System (unprivileged) - a typical ISP/web-hosting > arrangement. > * CGI, Single System (unprivileged) - a typical way that a corporate > user or university student can set up the platform without getting > system administrators involved. This differs from the "CGI only" > because the user also has the privilege to run daemons and schedule > jobs. > * Single User mod_perl, Single System (unprivileged) - a typical > way a developer will do development > * mod_perl, Single System (unprivileged) - like the "CGI, Single > System (unprivileged)" system but higher performance and more > resource-intensive > * mod_perl, Single System (privileged) - a simple, entry-level > production platform. This has only a single, mod_perl-enabled > Apache server to handle static and dynamic requests. > * Mirrored (unprivileged) - the closest thing to a highly-available > system that can be set up by non-privileged users. Data is > replicated in near-real time between a collection of machines, > and any of the participating mirrors may be used to access the > same applications and data. Each of the mirrors may choose to be > implemented as one of the other platforms. This also supports the > detachment of mirrored systems from the network (i.e. laptops) > and later reattachment and synchronization. > * Dual Redundant System - entry-level Enterprise platform, offering > simple failover from the primary to the backup secondary system > (no load-balancing) > * Single Site Cluster - typical Enterprise platform, offering > virtually unlimited scalability through load-balancing and > redundancy of every computing resource > * Multi-Site Cluster - global Enterprise platform, offering > everything a Single-Site Cluster offers in terms of scalability, > but with the added advantage that multiple sites dispersed > geographically may handle regional load and guard against major > regional catastrophes like earthquake, nuclear attack, etc. > > >
