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NetWorkSpaces Server
--------------------
NetWorkSpaces (NWS) is a powerful, open-source software package that
makes it easy to use clusters from within scripting languages like
Python, R, and Matlab. It uses a Space-based approach, similar to
JavaSpaces (TM) for example, that makes it easier to write distributed
applications.
Installation
------------
NetWorkSpaces Server requires that you have:
Python version 2.2 or later.
Twisted 2.1 and Twisted-Web 0.5 or later.
It is distributed as a Python source distribution, using the standard
Python distribution utilities. The full installation instructions are
in the INSTALL file that is included in the source distribution, but
here's a quick summary of the "System Installation":
% tar xzf nwsserver-1.6.X.tar.gz
% cd nwsserver-1.6.X
% python setup.py install
You'll probably need to use a privileged account to do this. If you
don't want to (or can't) do that, you can use some options to install
into a different location. To get help on the install options,
execute the command:
% python setup.py install --help
Starting the NetWorkSpaces server (System Installation)
-------------------------------------------------------
To start the NetWorkSpaces server, you can execute it using the twistd
command, as follows:
% twistd -ny /etc/nws.tac > nws.log 2>&1 &
or, if you're using a csh compatible shell:
% twistd -ny /etc/nws.tac >& nws.log &
which runs as the current user. See the twistd man page for more
information.
To use different ports (as discussed in the Configuration section of
the INSTALL file), just set the appropriate environment variables
before executing twistd:
% NWS_SERVER_PORT=9765; export NWS_SERVER_PORT
% NWS_WEB_PORT=9766; export NWS_WEB_PORT
or, if you're using a csh compatible shell:
% setenv NWS_SERVER_PORT 9765
% setenv NWS_WEB_PORT 9766
To shutdown the NetWorkSpaces server, you have to kill it by sending a
SIGTERM signal at it. The twistd command creates a file that contains
the process id of the server, so you can shut it down with the
following command:
% kill `cat twistd.pid`
You could also use the nwsserver command. Just copy it somewhere in
your PATH, and execute the following command:
% nwsserver start
If you start the NetWorkSpaces server using the nwsserver command,
you can shut it down using the command:
% nwsserver stop
The nwsserver command can be set up for use as an init script on some
systems, but that is not documented at this time.
Starting the NetWorkSpaces server (Private Installation)
--------------------------------------------------------
To start the NetWorkSpaces server with a private installation,
you can execute it using the twistd command, as follows:
% twistd -ny $HOME/etc/nws.tac > nws.log 2>&1 &
or, if you're using a csh compatible shell:
% twistd -ny $HOME/etc/nws.tac >& nws.log &
Shutting down is the same as for a system installation:
% kill `cat twistd.pid`
You can also use the nwsserver command, which you could copy to a
directory in your PATH, such as $HOME/bin, and execute as follows:
% nwsserver start
and shut it down with:
% nwsserver stop
Web Interface
-------------
The NetWorkSpaces server includes a builtin web interface that allows
you to browser the workspaces. To view from your local machine, open
the following URL with a web browser:
http://localhost:8766/
or use the appropriate host name if coming from a different machine.
Babelfish
---------
In order to examine the values of a workspace using the server's web
interface, you'll usually need to have a babelfish running. The
babelfish translates the values into a human readable format. If a
value is a string, then the web interface simply displays the contents
of the string, without any help from a babelfish. But if the value is
any other type of object, it needs the help of a babelfish. For this
reason, the babelfish are packaged with the client distributions, and
are not included with the NetWorkSpaces server. But since the
babelfish relate to the web interface (which is part of the server),
it's something that you should be aware of when setting up the server.
Using NetWorkSpaces
-------------------
The server alone doesn't really do anything: you need to install one
of the client packages to actually do something useful with
NetWorkSpaces. There are currently client packages available for
python, R, and Matlab. See http://www.lindaspaces.com/ for more
information.
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