Managing Real-World System Configurations with Constraints

Managing large computing infrastructures in a reliable and efficient way requires system configuration tools which accept higher-level specifications. This paper describes an interface between the established configuration tool LCFG, and the experimental configuration tool PoDlM. The combined system is used to generate explicit real-world configurations from high-level, constraint-based specifications. The concept is validated using live data from a large production installation. This demonstrates that a loosely-coupled, multi-layer approach can be used to construct configuration tools which translate high-level requirements into deployable production configurations.