Glossary

"At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionaries are excellent for distraction."

-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

For a proper and gradual introduction of the concepts behind AppLogic, please see the AppLogic Overview and the User Manual documents.

This Glossary is currently under construction. It only lists the terms, but we haven't gotten around to explaining them in a short form appropriate for glossaries. See AppLogic Overview, Application Model, ADL Language Reference or the Infrastructure Editor topics for more information until the Glossary is filled in (feel free to try your hand at defining some of the terms here).

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A

ADL

Application Description Language. A structure description language used to capture the design of distributed applications in AppLogic. ADL is used to represent application infrastructure in text form. It is semantically equivalent to XML, but is significantly more suitable for humans. See ADL Language Reference for details.

appliance

See also simple appliance and assembly. A self-contained virtual environment that provides a particular function inside an application. Appliances can be simple or assemblies. The term appliance can be used to denote either the appliance class or an instance of it.

application

A unit of execution on the grid. An application consists of one or more appliances and contains its full infrastructure, configuration and user data. An application can be a template or an instance. Templates can be used to provision multiple instances.

application boundary

the class boundary of the application as an appliance class (the predefined singleton class main). See also class boundary and interior.

application instance

A particular copy of an application that is fully configured and can be run on the grid.

application template

A partially configured application that is used as a template for provisioning application instances.

application volume

A named virtual volume attached directly to an application. Application volumes are most often used to deploy HTML files, static content, scripts, code and databases that are specific to the particular application. An application volume is typically used in conjunction with a virtual appliance, which is configured with the name of the volume and a directory path on that volume from which the appliance should access the content it requires.

assembly

An assembly is an appliance that is composed out of other appliances.. See also appliance. Contrast with simple appliance.

attribute (in appliances)

x. Contrast with property.

attribute (in ADL)

x. See also ADL Language Reference.

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B

boundary

x. See also class boundary and application boundary. Contrast with interior.

boundary property

a property defined on the boundary of a class or assembly.

boundary volume

a placeholder volume defined on the boundary of a class or assembly.

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C

catalog

x. See also global catalog, local catalog.

catalog class

x. See also class. Contrast with singleton class.

class

A class is a definition of an appliance, consisting of boundary and volumes, that can be used to create appliance instances. See also catalog class and singleton class. Contrast with instance.

class boundary

all attributes of a class visible from outside. The class boundary of AppLogic appliances includes the class name, terminals, volumes, resources and properties. Both simple appliances and assemblies have boundaries. See also application boundary. Contrast with interior.

class volume

x. See also virtual volume, instantiable volume, common volume, null volume. Contrast with placeholder volume.

common volume

x. See also class volume. Contrast with instantiable volume and null volume.

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D

default interface

x. See also interface, external interface. Contrast with terminal.

deploy

Create an application template or application instance on a grid, by deploying the application's code, content and data onto the grid infrastructure.

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E

external interface

x. See also interface, default interface. Contrast with terminal.

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F

failover group

x

field engineering code

x. See Field Engineering Codes for details (and then forget about them).

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G

global catalog

x. See also catalog. Contrast with local catalog.

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H

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I

input

x. See also terminal and interface. Contrast with output.

instance

Instance of an appliance class that is used in a particular application. See also appliance. Contrast with class.

instantiable volume

x. See also class volume. Contrast with common volume and null volume.

interface

x. See also terminal, external interface, default interface.

interior

x. Contrast with boundary.

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J

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K

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L

local catalog

x. See also catalog. Contrast with global catalog.

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M

migration

x

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N

null volume

x. See also class volume. Contrast with instantiable volume and null volume.

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O

output

x. See also terminal and interface. Constrast with input.

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P

placeholder volume

x. See also volume. Contrast with class volume.

property

x

provision (application)

Create an instance of an application from a template. A provisioned application can be assigned resources, configured, and run on the grid.

provision (grid)

Create a new grid from a set of physical servers.

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Q

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R

resources

Physical computing resources, like CPU, memory, storage, etc., that can be provided to an appliance or application for its execution.

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S

server

x

singleton, singleton class

x. See also class. Contrast with catalog class.

simple appliance

A simple appliance consists of a single virtual environment. It comprises a virtual machine, virtual volumes and virtual network interfaces. It runs its own copy of an operating system (e.g., Linux) and appliance-specific software. See also appliance. Contrast with assembly.

standby

x

start order

x

subordinate

x. See also instance.

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T

terminal

x. See also interface, input and output. Contrast with external interface and default interface.

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U

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V

virtual volume

x. See also volume.

volume

x. See also virtual volume, class volume, placeholder volume, as well as boundary volume and application volume.

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W

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X

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Y

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Z

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-- BeckyH - 26 May 2006