Extensions and an explanation module for the iRODS Rule Oriented Verifier

Data grids provide data sharing environments for the management of globally distributed data. Software systems such as iRODS simulate an adaptive middleware architecture that is required for data grids, so that interoperability mechanisms needed to interact with legacy storage systems, as well as the logical name spaces needed to identify files, resources and users, can be controlled. The rule-oriented programming approach is used in the implementation of the iRODS framework wherein management policies are mapped onto rules which can be calibrated by the end user in order to meet existing demands. The Rule-Oriented VErifier (ROVE) framework provides an interface to verify user specified properties against the underlying iRODS rule base. The actual verification is carried out at the back end by the Web Application VErifier (WAVE)---which is a verification framework for interactive data-driven web applications. The ROVE framework is hence modeled along WAVE web page semantics. The entire process of verification must be performed transparently from end-to-end. The main focus of this thesis is to analyze the problems associated with the direct application of the existing WAVE explanation module to the ROVE framework. Additionally, this document explains the extensive efforts that have been taken to extend the current capabilities of ROVE so that it can support a more complex underlying iRODS rule-base.