Debugging MPI grid applications using net-dbx

Abstract

Application-development in Grid environments is a challenging process, thus the need for grid enabled development tools is also one that has to be fulfilled. In our work we describe the development of a Grid Interface for the Net-dbx parallel debugger, that can be used to debug MPI grid applications. Net-dbx is a web-based debugger enabling users to use it for debugging from anywhere in the Internet. The proposed debugging architecture is platform independent, because it uses Java, and it is accessible from anywhere, anytime because it is web based. Our architecture provides an abstraction layer between the debugger and the grid middleware and MPI implementation used. This makes the debugger easily adaptable to different middlewares. The grid-enabled architecture of our debugger carries the portability and usability advantages of Net-dbx on which we have based our design. A prototype has been developed and tested. © Springer-Verlag 2004.