Abstract: In today's field of distributed computing there is a need for platforms allowing the easy development and automated configuration of applications consisting of heterogeneous software modules and running on heterogeneous hardware platforms. Aster is a distributed programming system that permits the programmer to construct a distributed application regardless to the physical characteristics of the hardware and software components that will be used. It also customizes the distributed runtime system automatically in order to satisfy application needs. We demonstrate the capabilities of Aster by proposing a design approach for a platform integrating existing file systems into a federated distributed file system (FDFS). Our system allows the specification of application requirements concerning Quality of Service (QoS), and based on them it builds the interconnection environment automatically.

Keywords: Distributed programming, Dynamic reconfiguration, File systems.