CReST Files

CReST Copyright (C) 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 John Cartlidge, University of Bristol.

Refer to license/COPYRIGHT-LICENSE.txt

CReST README.txt. Last Modified: John Cartlidge, 23 March 2014.


Contents:
1) Release information and changelog
2) Quickstart guide

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(1) CReST Releases and Changelog.

CReSTv0.5.0 Beta release on SourceForge: 23/03/2014

- Market package added for running market trading simulations
	- ZIP trader algorithms added 
	- Orderbook for trading 
	- Run cloud computing instance market simulation of the Amazon EC2 Reserved Instance Marketplace (ARIM).
	- ARIM simulation results published in Cartlidge (2014)
- Thermal module refactored to enable new thermal models to be added using ThermalModelFactory
	- Existing thermal model code packaged into "SimpleDiffusionModel" class
	- Skeleton framework added for new thermal model "SimpleConvectionModel" class. Requires new logic. 
- Peer-reviewed publications using this release version: 
	- J. Cartlidge, (2014), "Trading experiments using financial agents in a simulated cloud computing commodity market," in Proc. 6th Int. Conf. Agents and Artif. Intell., Vol. 2 - Agents (ICAART-2014). B. Duval, J. van den Herik, S. Loiseau & J. Filipe, Eds. Angers, France: SciTePress, Mar. 2014, pp. 311-317. doi:10.5220/0004925303110317

CReSTv0.4.0 Beta release on SourceForge: 02/10/2013
 
- Brokerage module updated
	- Brokerage module can now fully replicate Rogers & Cliff (2012) doi:10.1186/2192-113X-1-2
	- 12 month reservations added. 
	- R&C's 'Payment Bug' and 'Reservations Bug' added as a configuration switch.
	- Including overhaul of python analysis scripts: python_scripts/CReST-Brokerage-Scripts	
- Peer-reviewed publications using this release version: 
	- J. Cartlidge & P. Clamp, (2014, in press), "Correcting a financial brokerage model for cloud computing: closing the window of opportunity for commercialisation," To appear in SpringerOpen's Journal of Cloud Computing: Advances, Systems and Applications. 

CReSTv0.3.0 Beta release on SourceForge: 20/05/2013

- Builder GUI application overhaul 
- Brokerage modules updated
- Peer-reviewed publications using this release version:
	- J. Cartlidge & D. Cliff, (2013), "Comparison of Cloud Middleware Protocols and Subscription Network Topologies using CReST, the Cloud Research Simulation Toolkit," in Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. Cloud Computing and Services Science (CLOSER-2013). F. Desprez, D. Ferguson, E. Hadar, F. Leymann, M. Jarke & M. Helfert, Eds. Aachen, Germany: SciTePress, May 2013, pp. 58-68. doi:10.5220/0004377500580068
	- P. Clamp & J. Cartlidge, (2013), "Pricing the cloud: An adaptive brokerage for cloud computing," in Proc. 5th Int. Conf. Advances in System Simulation (SIMUL-2013). M. Bauer & P. Lorenz, Eds. Venice, Italy: IARIA XPS Press, Oct 2013, pp. 113-121. [Available Open Access] http://www.thinkmind.org/index.php?view=article&articleid=simul_2013_5_20_50079
	- P. Clamp (2013), "Pricing the Cloud: An Investigation into Financial Brokerage for Cloud Computing." Master of Engineering Dissertation, Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol, May 2013.
	
CReSTv0.2.0 Alpha release on SourceForge: 30/06/2012

- Refactoring of internal packages: modules now following MVC architecture more strictly.
- Documentation added: Users' and Developers' guides.
- Javadocs added

CReSTv0.1.0 Alpha release on SourceForge: 11/04/2012

- Initial SourceForge release. Documentation missing.

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(2) CReST Quickstart Guide.

Build CReST by running ant build:

$ ant -buildfile build-CReST.xml

This creates a distribution directory dist/ containing two folders: 
1.	CReST-app: containing executable CReST jar and start scripts
2.	CReST-code: containing a copy of CReST distribution


To run CReST, move to the dist/CReST-app directory and run the example start script: 

$ ./example-start-crest.sh

This script contains the following command: 

$ java -Xmx1000m -Xdock:name="CReST" -jar CReST.jar -c resources/config/example_1dc_1.xml.gz -p resources/config/prop/example_params_1.properties 

This command will start an instance of CReST in graphical interactive mode.  For non-graphical batch mode, use the command line flag '-nogui' or '-ng'. The required '-c' flag indicates the datacentre configuration file to run and the optional (but recommended) '-p' flag indicates the CReST simulation properties file to run.

The CReST GUI will open when the script is run. The configuration file can be changed by using the file > open dialog box. To start CReST, do Run > Run Simulator (or the short-cut F5).  This starts the simulation running. To stop the simulation, do Run > Stop Simulator (or the short-cut q).

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CReST Configuration 
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CReST Builder: Datacentre Configuration Files

In order to run, CReST requires a datacentre configuration file. These files contain an XML description of the physical properties of the datacentre, including the location and description of all servers. Configuration files can be generated and edited using the CReST Builder GUI application.  To create a new configuration file, run CReSTBuilder using the shell script:
 
$ startCReSTBuilder.sh

Select 'New Configuration' and give it a name, e.g., 'my_dc_config', or select one of the example configuration files to open and edit.  When the configuration is complete, it will be saved with extension .xml.gz 

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CReST Simulation Properties Files
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Simulation properties can be input into CReST using simple text files that must have extension '.properties'.  See file: docs/user-guide-properties-file.txt for a list of properties that can be altered for the subscription/middleware module.  Some example '.properties' files can be found in the folder: resources/config/prop/. Simulation properties files override parameter values in CReST configuration files, providing an easy way for users to vary parameter values across runs, without creating many different datacentre configuration files.

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CReST User Events Files
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User defined events can be configured for CReST using user events files. Examples of these can be found in the resources/event/ directory.  Events determine the fail time and fail type of individual hardware. 

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CReST Log4j Logging
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CReST uses Log4j for logging output. Log settings can be changed by altering the log4j properties files located in resources/log4j_config
- CReSTApp-log4j.properties 		- log4j properties for CReST application
- CReSTBuilderApp-log4j.properties 	- log4j properties for CReST Builder application

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Java Docs
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If you want to generate javadocs for CReST, run: 

$ ant javadoc -buildfile build-CReST.xml

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