A modern server system must deliver a complex set of obligations towards its users. We study the concept of roles as autonomous encapsulations of a set of promises. Using virtualization and configuration management, every defined role for a reallife computer system can be realized as a self managing agent that is aware of other, related roles within the same broader context. A prototype implementation that provides web hotel services for customers is presented and discussed.
Kyrre M. Begnum, Mark Burgess, John A. Sechrest