From twright at bbn.com  Tue Mar  4 15:05:02 2008
From: twright at bbn.com (Todd Wright)
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:05:02 -0500
Subject: Scalability of Cougaar
In-Reply-To: <4f0d935a0803031451w55209cf2r9a4073e3b08fc9ed@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803031451w55209cf2r9a4073e3b08fc9ed@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <47CDAB6E.6010806@bbn.com>

Dimitrios Traskas wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I am a new Cougaar developer and decided to move to the platform after 
> failed attempts with JADE and Agentscape when tried to scale my 
> projects. I am running large scale simulations that I wish to extend to 
> 2000+ Agents at some point. From your experience do you believe that 
> Cougaar is stable and scalable enough to handle thousands of Agents at 
> the same host and several hosts. How many Agents would you say it can 
> have in one machine? I would really appreciate your comments.

We've tested 5 JVMs with 2000 agents each, where the agents are configured into 
pairs that periodically "ping" one another.  The test worked but the naming 
service overhead was high.

You can create similar scalability test with the ping tutorial:
   http://tutorials.cougaar.org/
For example, you could easily write a script to generate an XML configuration 
for a fan-shaped ping (as seen in the "FanSociety.xml") with thousands of 
agents split across multiple nodes (as seen in the "PingTwoNodeSociety.xml"). 
Also see the "mesh" tutorial.

A single-host configuration can be optimized to use the local-only naming and 
messaging services, as illustrated in the above demos.

The multi-host naming service can be tuned or, if required, replaced with an 
alternative implementation.  For example, the pluggable "local-only" naming 
service implementation is about 200 lines of Java code:
http://cougaar.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/core/src/org/cougaar/core/wp/LoopbackWhitePages.java?rev=1.2&cvsroot=core&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup

Todd

> 
> 
> Thanks
> Dimitri


From dtraskas at googlemail.com  Tue Mar  4 19:43:40 2008
From: dtraskas at googlemail.com (Dimitrios Traskas)
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 00:43:40 +0000
Subject: Cougaar Mac OS X
Message-ID: <4f0d935a0803041643w5abbf4d7i656ceec204f633ce@mail.gmail.com>

Hi all,

I am quite new to Cougaar and initially trying to identify how powerful and
reliable the platform can be. I am currently running a very simple
experiment, trying to see how many agents I can support in one node. The
experiment is very simple, I have a HelloWorld Plugin which just uses the
log shout to print a Hello World and I also get the address of the current
Agent to make sure I print messages from each one of my Agents. I then
create with a script 100, 500 and 1000 Agents respectively. The experiment
runs for 100 and 500 Agents but not 1000. I am using a Mac OS X Leopard as
the development platform at the moment with JSDK 1.5 and NetBeans 5.5.1. I
would appreciate any help.

The message I get can be seen below with the 1000 Agents experiment:


2008-03-05 00:37:42,614 WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for
Memory on platform Mac OS X
2008-03-05 00:37:42,614 WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for CPU
on platform Mac OS X
2008-03-05 00:37:42,614 WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for
Sockets on platform Mac OS X
2008-03-05 00:38:21,239 ERROR [ThreadPool] - Uncaught exception in pooled
thread (<Schedulable White pages server handle incoming responses>)
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
        at java.nio.CharBuffer.wrap(CharBuffer.java:350)
        at java.nio.CharBuffer.wrap(CharBuffer.java:373)
        at java.lang.StringCoding$CharsetSD.decode(StringCoding.java:188)
        at java.lang.StringCoding.decode(StringCoding.java:228)
        at java.lang.String.<init>(String.java:405)
        at java.util.jar.Attributes.read(Attributes.java:401)
        at java.util.jar.Manifest.read(Manifest.java:219)
        at java.util.jar.Manifest.<init>(Manifest.java:52)
        at java.util.jar.JarFile.getManifestFromReference(JarFile.java:158)
        at java.util.jar.JarFile.getManifest(JarFile.java:145)
        at sun.misc.URLClassPath$JarLoader$1.getManifest(URLClassPath.java
:624)
        at org.cougaar.bootstrap.XURLClassLoader.defineClass(
XURLClassLoader.java:221)
        at org.cougaar.bootstrap.XURLClassLoader$1.run(XURLClassLoader.java
:195)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at org.cougaar.bootstrap.XURLClassLoader.findClass(
XURLClassLoader.java:188)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:316)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:251)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:374)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.server.RootAuthority.modifyAndForward(
RootAuthority.java:684)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.server.RootAuthority.handle(
RootAuthority.java:361)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.server.RootAuthority.handleAll(
RootAuthority.java:279)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.server.RootAuthority.access$300(
RootAuthority.java:67)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.server.RootAuthority$MyClient.modify(
RootAuthority.java:1129)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.server.ServerTransport.tellClients(
ServerTransport.java:541)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.server.ServerTransport.receiveNow(
ServerTransport.java:726)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.server.ServerTransport.receiveNow(
ServerTransport.java:770)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.server.ServerTransport.access$200(
ServerTransport.java:76)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.server.ServerTransport$2.run(
ServerTransport.java:250)
        at org.cougaar.core.thread.SchedulableObject.run(
SchedulableObject.java:118)
        at org.cougaar.core.thread.ThreadPool$PooledThread.continuationLoop(
ThreadPool.java:94)
        at org.cougaar.core.thread.ThreadPool$PooledThread.run(
ThreadPool.java:122)
2008-03-05 00:38:26,857 ERROR [ThreadPool] - Uncaught exception in pooled
thread (<Schedulable White pages client transport send queue checker>)
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
        at java.util.HashMap.<init>(HashMap.java:203)
        at org.cougaar.core.mts.SimpleMessageAttributes.<init>(
SimpleMessageAttributes.java:47)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.MessageTimeoutUtils.set(
MessageTimeoutUtils.java:115)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.MessageTimeoutUtils.setDeadline(
MessageTimeoutUtils.java:61)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.resolver.SelectManager.select(
SelectManager.java:487)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.resolver.SelectManager.access$900(
SelectManager.java:68)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.resolver.SelectManager$SelectSP$SI.select(
SelectManager.java:799)
        at
org.cougaar.core.wp.resolver.ClientTransport.collectMessagesToSend(
ClientTransport.java:733)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.resolver.ClientTransport.send(
ClientTransport.java:414)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.resolver.ClientTransport.checkDeadlinesNow(
ClientTransport.java:367)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.resolver.ClientTransport.access$300(
ClientTransport.java:77)
        at org.cougaar.core.wp.resolver.ClientTransport$3.run(
ClientTransport.java:215)
        at org.cougaar.core.thread.SchedulableObject.run(
SchedulableObject.java:118)
        at org.cougaar.core.thread.ThreadPool$PooledThread.continuationLoop(
ThreadPool.java:94)
        at org.cougaar.core.thread.ThreadPool$PooledThread.run(
ThreadPool.java:122)
2008-03-05 00:38:31,337 ERROR [ThreadPool] - Uncaught exception in pooled
thread (<Schedulable anonymous>)
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
        at java.io.BufferedInputStream.<init>(BufferedInputStream.java:178)
        at java.io.BufferedInputStream.<init>(BufferedInputStream.java:158)
        at java.lang.UNIXProcess$1.run(UNIXProcess.java:63)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.lang.UNIXProcess.<init>(UNIXProcess.java:59)
        at java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(ProcessImpl.java:91)
        at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:451)
        at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Runtime.java:591)
        at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Runtime.java:429)
        at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Runtime.java:326)
        at org.cougaar.qos.qrs.sysstat.SunOSLoadAverage.getData(
SunOSLoadAverage.java:67)
        at org.cougaar.qos.qrs.sysstat.DirectSysStatSupplier$Task.run(
DirectSysStatSupplier.java:107)
        at org.cougaar.core.thread.SchedulableObject.run(
SchedulableObject.java:118)
        at org.cougaar.core.thread.ThreadPool$PooledThread.continuationLoop(
ThreadPool.java:94)
        at org.cougaar.core.thread.ThreadPool$PooledThread.run(
ThreadPool.java:122)
Exception in thread "CougaarPooledThread-1" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java
heap space
2008-03-05 00:38:42,952 ERROR [ThreadPool] - Uncaught exception in pooled
thread (<Schedulable White pages server handle incoming responses>)
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
2008-03-05 00:38:49,797 ERROR [ThreadPool] - Uncaught exception in pooled
thread (<Schedulable Incarnation>)
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
2008-03-05 00:38:56,429 ERROR [ThreadPool] - Uncaught exception in pooled
thread (<Schedulable White pages server handle incoming responses>)
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
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From martijn at yall.nl  Wed Mar  5 03:19:23 2008
From: martijn at yall.nl (Martijn Broos)
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:19:23 +0100
Subject: Cougaar Mac OS X
In-Reply-To: <4f0d935a0803041643w5abbf4d7i656ceec204f633ce@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803041643w5abbf4d7i656ceec204f633ce@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <47CE578B.1060707@yall.nl>

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From dtraskas at googlemail.com  Wed Mar  5 17:44:21 2008
From: dtraskas at googlemail.com (Dimitrios Traskas)
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 22:44:21 +0000
Subject: Cougaar Mac OS X
Message-ID: <4f0d935a0803051444q32f69ce2x8509121e474097f7@mail.gmail.com>

Hi there

thanks for the replies. I have tried to set the  <vm_parameter> -Xmx1024m
</vm_parameter> in my society.xml file within my project and no luck. I also
modified the configuration file of Netbeans to increase the Java heap space
to 1GB and no luck with that either. I then looked at the parameters in
SimpleAgent.xsl and I could not understand what I need to change there. Is
there an example that I can use, apart from the code examples in ping and
mesh tutorials?

Sorry for the repeated questions but I do need to get to the bottom of this.
Do you think there might be a problem with using Netbeans and the Idistro
module instead of Eclipse?


Thanks
Dimitri
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From twright at bbn.com  Wed Mar  5 18:56:19 2008
From: twright at bbn.com (Todd Wright)
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:56:19 -0500
Subject: Cougaar Mac OS X
In-Reply-To: <4f0d935a0803051444q32f69ce2x8509121e474097f7@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803051444q32f69ce2x8509121e474097f7@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <47CF3323.4040104@bbn.com>

Dimitrios Traskas wrote:
> Hi there
> 
> thanks for the replies. I have tried to set the  <vm_parameter> 
> -Xmx1024m </vm_parameter> in my society.xml file within my project and 
> no luck. I also modified the configuration file of Netbeans to increase 
> the Java heap space to 1GB and no luck with that either.

Are you sure this value is being passed to the JVM?

Try adding this to your test plugin:
   System.out.println("Max heap size: "+Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory());

I tested this on my Linux box.  With no "-Xmx" it prints:
   Max heap size: 66650112      (64mb)
With "-Xmx1024m" it prints:
   Max heap size: 1065484288    (1016mb)

> I then looked
> at the parameters in SimpleAgent.xsl and I could not understand what I 
> need to change there.

You shouldn't need to edit that file.  There are some -D flags you could set, 
but that should not be necessary.  For details, see:
   http://cougaar.cougaar.org/software/latest/OnlineManual/Templates.html

> Is there an example that I can use, apart from the
> code examples in ping and mesh tutorials?

No, I think your simple example is the right place to start.

I think that the -Xmx value is not being passed to the JVM, as noted above.

> 
> Sorry for the repeated questions but I do need to get to the bottom of 
> this. Do you think there might be a problem with using Netbeans and the 
> Idistro module instead of Eclipse?

I don't know how that IDE passes the -D and -X flags to the JVM.

You might want to try running your example from the command line.

Todd

> 
> 
> Thanks
> Dimitri


From dtraskas at googlemail.com  Thu Mar  6 03:16:16 2008
From: dtraskas at googlemail.com (Dimitrios Traskas)
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 08:16:16 +0000
Subject: Cougaar Mac OS X
In-Reply-To: <47CF3323.4040104@bbn.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803051444q32f69ce2x8509121e474097f7@mail.gmail.com>
	<47CF3323.4040104@bbn.com>
Message-ID: <4f0d935a0803060016x5d5292b3j4b4c7acc5d5539fa@mail.gmail.com>

Hi again,

I have tried the same test with Eclipse and your suggestions worked fine. I
managed to scale up my simple experiment to 1000 agents with no problem and
I am only having a difficulty with 2000 which could be down again to certain
settings such as number of threads in the pool. I can only assume that
NetBeans and the Idistro  CougaarDev module do not work as they should. I
also assume that you guys all use Eclipse and CougaarIDE for your
development which can make the difference. It would be worth putting down
your suggestion for preferred IDE.

Are the warnings:

WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for Memory on platform Mac OS X
WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for CPU on platform Mac OS X
WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for Sockets on platform Mac OS X

something serious I have to look into? Do you believe they would cause a
problem later on?


Many Thanks
Dimitri







On 05/03/2008, Todd Wright <twright at bbn.com> wrote:
>
> Dimitrios Traskas wrote:
> > Hi there
> >
> > thanks for the replies. I have tried to set the  <vm_parameter>
> > -Xmx1024m </vm_parameter> in my society.xml file within my project and
> > no luck. I also modified the configuration file of Netbeans to increase
> > the Java heap space to 1GB and no luck with that either.
>
>
> Are you sure this value is being passed to the JVM?
>
> Try adding this to your test plugin:
>    System.out.println("Max heap size: "+Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory());
>
> I tested this on my Linux box.  With no "-Xmx" it prints:
>    Max heap size: 66650112      (64mb)
> With "-Xmx1024m" it prints:
>    Max heap size: 1065484288    (1016mb)
>
>
> > I then looked
> > at the parameters in SimpleAgent.xsl and I could not understand what I
> > need to change there.
>
>
> You shouldn't need to edit that file.  There are some -D flags you could
> set,
> but that should not be necessary.  For details, see:
>    http://cougaar.cougaar.org/software/latest/OnlineManual/Templates.html
>
>
> > Is there an example that I can use, apart from the
> > code examples in ping and mesh tutorials?
>
>
> No, I think your simple example is the right place to start.
>
> I think that the -Xmx value is not being passed to the JVM, as noted
> above.
>
>
> >
> > Sorry for the repeated questions but I do need to get to the bottom of
> > this. Do you think there might be a problem with using Netbeans and the
> > Idistro module instead of Eclipse?
>
>
> I don't know how that IDE passes the -D and -X flags to the JVM.
>
> You might want to try running your example from the command line.
>
> Todd
>
> >
> >
> > Thanks
> > Dimitri
>
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From ahelsing at bbn.com  Thu Mar  6 09:10:47 2008
From: ahelsing at bbn.com (Aaron Helsinger)
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:10:47 -0500
Subject: Cougaar Mac OS X
In-Reply-To: <4f0d935a0803060016x5d5292b3j4b4c7acc5d5539fa@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803051444q32f69ce2x8509121e474097f7@mail.gmail.com>	<47CF3323.4040104@bbn.com>
	<4f0d935a0803060016x5d5292b3j4b4c7acc5d5539fa@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <47CFFB67.8020302@bbn.com>


Dimitrios Traskas wrote:
> I also assume that you guys all use Eclipse and CougaarIDE for your 
> development which can make the difference.
That, or IntelliJ IDEA or just plain Emacs/vi and command line tools are 
the ones that many of us use, but there is no reason it shouldn't work 
with NetBeans -- I just can't tell you how to pass VM parameters through 
NetBeans to Cougaar.
> Are the warnings:
>
> WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for Memory on platform Mac OS X
> WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for CPU on platform Mac OS X
> WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for Sockets on platform Mac 
> OS X
>
> something serious I have to look into? Do you believe they would cause 
> a problem later on?
Not serious. These messages (and the similar messages you often see on 
Windows) simply indicate that the MetricsService doesnt have a built in 
way for getting these statistics. For info on the MetricsService, see 
the Online Manual:
http://cougaar.cougaar.org/software/latest/OnlineManual/MetricsService/


From twright at bbn.com  Thu Mar  6 11:29:02 2008
From: twright at bbn.com (Todd Wright)
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:29:02 -0500
Subject: Cougaar Mac OS X
In-Reply-To: <47CFFB67.8020302@bbn.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803051444q32f69ce2x8509121e474097f7@mail.gmail.com>	<47CF3323.4040104@bbn.com>	<4f0d935a0803060016x5d5292b3j4b4c7acc5d5539fa@mail.gmail.com>
	<47CFFB67.8020302@bbn.com>
Message-ID: <47D01BCE.6000504@bbn.com>


Aaron Helsinger wrote:
> Dimitrios Traskas wrote:
>> I also assume that you guys all use Eclipse and CougaarIDE for your 
>> development which can make the difference.
> That, or IntelliJ IDEA or just plain Emacs/vi and command line tools are 
> the ones that many of us use, but there is no reason it shouldn't work 
> with NetBeans -- I just can't tell you how to pass VM parameters through 
> NetBeans to Cougaar.
>> Are the warnings:
>>
>> WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for Memory on platform Mac OS X
>> WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for CPU on platform Mac OS X
>> WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for Sockets on platform Mac 
>> OS X
>>
>> something serious I have to look into? Do you believe they would cause 
>> a problem later on?
> Not serious. These messages (and the similar messages you often see on 
> Windows) simply indicate that the MetricsService doesnt have a built in 
> way for getting these statistics.

Right, these are OS-specific.  See:
http://cougaar.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/qrs/src/org/cougaar/qos/qrs/sysstat/?cvsroot=qos

> For info on the MetricsService, see
> the Online Manual:
> http://cougaar.cougaar.org/software/latest/OnlineManual/MetricsService/

At worst you'd see "unknown" values in some of the metrics displays, e.g. slide 
42 of the Cougaar Overview presentation:
   http://cougaar.org/docman/view.php/17/196/CougaarOverview.ppt
and
http://cougaar.cougaar.org/software/latest/OnlineManual/MetricsService/node-resources-servlet.html

Todd

> 
> _______________________________________________
> Cougaar-developers mailing list
> Cougaar-developers at cougaar.org
> http://cougaar.org/mailman/listinfo/cougaar-developers
> 


From blaise at idistro.com  Sat Mar  8 21:06:12 2008
From: blaise at idistro.com (blaise@idistro.com)
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 18:06:12 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Cougaar Mac OS X
In-Reply-To: <47CFFB67.8020302@bbn.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803051444q32f69ce2x8509121e474097f7@mail.gmail.com>
	<47CF3323.4040104@bbn.com>
	<4f0d935a0803060016x5d5292b3j4b4c7acc5d5539fa@mail.gmail.com>
	<47CFFB67.8020302@bbn.com>
Message-ID: <50606.123.243.7.93.1205028372.squirrel@www.idistro.com>

Hi Dimitrios,

Regarding netbeans, you can add VM Parameters into the mix through the
project ant build.xml file. There is ant target for starting nodes which
you can edit. This allows cougaar nodes to be started with one node per
jvm, as they were originally intended.

The cougar agent archives 'car', that are deployed by the CougaarDev
environment were intended to allow multiple nodes to be deployed into a
single Jboss instance using Jboss Cougaar Containers but this currently
only works for single nodes as Cougaar nodes take parameters from the
environment, and well there is only so much you can do with a classloader.
If you use one node you can alter the jvm vm parameters in the jboss start
script.

Haven't had a look at this for a while though so maybe a few versions
behind...

Anyway, Hope this helps,

Blaise.


>
> Dimitrios Traskas wrote:
>> I also assume that you guys all use Eclipse and CougaarIDE for your
>> development which can make the difference.
> That, or IntelliJ IDEA or just plain Emacs/vi and command line tools are
> the ones that many of us use, but there is no reason it shouldn't work
> with NetBeans -- I just can't tell you how to pass VM parameters through
> NetBeans to Cougaar.
>> Are the warnings:
>>
>> WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for Memory on platform Mac OS
>> X
>> WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for CPU on platform Mac OS X
>> WARN  [DirectSysStatSupplier] - No handler for Sockets on platform Mac
>> OS X
>>
>> something serious I have to look into? Do you believe they would cause
>> a problem later on?
> Not serious. These messages (and the similar messages you often see on
> Windows) simply indicate that the MetricsService doesnt have a built in
> way for getting these statistics. For info on the MetricsService, see
> the Online Manual:
> http://cougaar.cougaar.org/software/latest/OnlineManual/MetricsService/
>
> _______________________________________________
> Cougaar-developers mailing list
> Cougaar-developers at cougaar.org
> http://cougaar.org/mailman/listinfo/cougaar-developers
>



From dtraskas at googlemail.com  Wed Mar 12 19:48:09 2008
From: dtraskas at googlemail.com (Dimitrios Traskas)
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:48:09 +0000
Subject: Cougaar's 15,000+ Agents vs. Other
Message-ID: <4f0d935a0803121648y3ee3dc23m236a0225e83c8af6@mail.gmail.com>

Hi to all,

I have recently started working with Cougaar and just want to mention a few
things that I noticed over the past 3 weeks that might prove useful to other
people.

First of all I have found so far that Cougaar is a highly scalable,
efficient, robust platform that will allow a lot of developers out there to
take MAS to the next level. It is more complicated and less intuitive than
other platforms such as JADE but it delivers the goods which is what matters
in the end. Running simple benchmark tests JADE was not able to cope once
the number of Agents increased to the hundreds. Other platforms are very
inconsistent and the behaviour varies every time you will do a run.

I have built recently a simple HelloWorldPlugin test in Cougaar and I
managed to scale it up to 15,000 Agents on a single machine and a single
jvm. For me that is critical as my simulation research involves thousands of
Agents deployed on single and multiple hosts and jvms. I am sure that number
will go down once I build up my Agents with functionality but memory also
goes down day by day. At least I know I can increase the memory Cougaar
needs by just typing -Xmx8192M :).

One last thing I want to mention is java IDEs. I have found out that the
Cougaar plugins that are supposed to make your life easier can prove a pain
sometimes. Personally I like working in NetBeans mainly because it has a
superb GUI Builder. Agents can be monitored by HTTP servlets but there is
also the breed of Interface Agents who require rich user interfaces built in
Swing or other APIs. What I have found to work very well in NetBeans is to
add the Cougaar libraries manually, create the project structure required
and society files manually, follow the Cougaar tutorials religiously and
then run your society from the console window. Anyway that's it for now,
hopefully I will be back with more questions.


Thanks again to the guys from BNN for their support.

Dimitri
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From dtraskas at googlemail.com  Sun Mar 16 19:25:00 2008
From: dtraskas at googlemail.com (Dimitrios Traskas)
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:25:00 +0000
Subject: Dynamic Agent Creation - Best Practices
Message-ID: <4f0d935a0803161625k33611e92tfcf29b3bed0ce2a5@mail.gmail.com>

Hi to all,

I have managed to slowly build up my simulation project and came to the
point that I need to dynamically create a couple of thousand Agents. I have
read the thread about Dynamic Agent Creation but I was wondering if I could
get some tips in order to generate thousands of Agents for various
simulation models. I also need to pass to each one of these Agents some
data. They need to know their working shifts through the day and how they
are going to perform (as it is a simulation). What would you say is the best
practice to do that? Do I need to use the LDM Data Assets or can I just
solve my problem by pushing a collection of data in the blackboard which is
then picked up by each of the Agents after they are created?

I would appreciate any tips on the subject because the dynamic creation of
Agents on my project is critical and I dont want to waste any memory or
resources. It has to be very efficient and reliable as the data that is
passed to each Agent can affect the end result dramatically.


Regards
Dimitris
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From duchene.morgan at wanadoo.fr  Tue Mar 18 18:18:54 2008
From: duchene.morgan at wanadoo.fr (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Morgan_Duch=E8ne?=)
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:18:54 +0100
Subject: Cougaar and JXTA
Message-ID: <47E03FCE.2060608@wanadoo.fr>

Hi everybody,

I am considering the sending of files between Cougaar nodes and it 
drives me to a few questions.

I found some documents dating from JavaOne 2002 where Cougaar was tested 
with JXTA for peer-to-peer purposes. What was exactly demonstrated and 
what happened to that project?

About the communication between two nodes, is there any route 
optimization to minimize transfer time as Skype does?

Thanks,
Morgan






From twright at bbn.com  Wed Mar 19 10:45:14 2008
From: twright at bbn.com (Todd Wright)
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:45:14 -0400
Subject: Dynamic Agent Creation - Best Practices
In-Reply-To: <4f0d935a0803161625k33611e92tfcf29b3bed0ce2a5@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803161625k33611e92tfcf29b3bed0ce2a5@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <47E126FA.9090102@bbn.com>

Dimitrios Traskas wrote:
> Hi to all,
> 
> I have managed to slowly build up my simulation project and came to the 
> point that I need to dynamically create a couple of thousand Agents. I 
> have read the thread about Dynamic Agent Creation but I was wondering if 
> I could get some tips in order to generate thousands of Agents for 
> various simulation models. I also need to pass to each one of these 
> Agents some data. They need to know their working shifts through the day 
> and how they are going to perform (as it is a simulation). What would 
> you say is the best practice to do that? Do I need to use the LDM Data 
> Assets or can I just solve my problem by pushing a collection of data in 
> the blackboard which is then picked up by each of the Agents after they 
> are created?

Yes, I'd use the second approach:  use Relays to push the data to the agents.

A similar approach is to have the new agents "report" to the "master" agent 
when they are created, via a relay, and the master can send back a relay with 
the data.

Todd

> 
> I would appreciate any tips on the subject because the dynamic creation 
> of Agents on my project is critical and I dont want to waste any memory 
> or resources. It has to be very efficient and reliable as the data that 
> is passed to each Agent can affect the end result dramatically.
> 
> 
> Regards
> Dimitris
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Cougaar-developers mailing list
> Cougaar-developers at cougaar.org
> http://cougaar.org/mailman/listinfo/cougaar-developers


From twright at bbn.com  Wed Mar 19 11:11:11 2008
From: twright at bbn.com (Todd Wright)
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:11:11 -0400
Subject: Cougaar and JXTA
In-Reply-To: <47E03FCE.2060608@wanadoo.fr>
References: <47E03FCE.2060608@wanadoo.fr>
Message-ID: <47E12D0F.2040905@bbn.com>

Morgan Duch?ne wrote:
> Hi everybody,
> 
> I am considering the sending of files between Cougaar nodes and it 
> drives me to a few questions.
> 
> I found some documents dating from JavaOne 2002 where Cougaar was tested 
> with JXTA for peer-to-peer purposes. What was exactly demonstrated and 
> what happened to that project?

It was a proof-of-concept.  As far as I know, that was it.

Is there some reason why you're interested in JXTA?  It's okay at message 
passing, but I don't think it's amazing at file sharing.

> 
> About the communication between two nodes, is there any route 
> optimization to minimize transfer time as Skype does?

No, the standard Cougaar link protocols (Java-RMI, JMS, HTTP, CORBA, etc) all 
use Sockets, so they'll follow the TCP/IP routing.  The JMS routing can be 
configured in the JMS servers, but I think that's more for getting past 
firewalls than for optimization.

Obviously, the easiest thing to do is to use NFS or some equivalent shared 
directory.  NFS is very good at what it does.

If you want to send the files through Cougaar, you should first try sending 
them as simple relays and see if the performance is acceptable.  Maybe this 
straight-forward solution will be fine.  If the files are very large then you 
might need to send them in smaller "chunks".

Lastly, your plugins could use some third-party library to move the files 
around, e.g. FTP.  Simply Google for "Java FTP".

Todd

> 
> Thanks,
> Morgan
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Cougaar-developers mailing list
> Cougaar-developers at cougaar.org
> http://cougaar.org/mailman/listinfo/cougaar-developers
> 


From dtraskas at googlemail.com  Wed Mar 19 16:11:03 2008
From: dtraskas at googlemail.com (Dimitrios Traskas)
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:11:03 +0000
Subject: Dynamic Agent Creation - Best Practices
In-Reply-To: <47E126FA.9090102@bbn.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803161625k33611e92tfcf29b3bed0ce2a5@mail.gmail.com>
	<47E126FA.9090102@bbn.com>
Message-ID: <4f0d935a0803191311r439204e0i1f3b041ee03fbb47@mail.gmail.com>

Thanks Todd,

I actually started implementing a solution where all the data is loaded on
the blackboard and then collected by the newly created Agents. But I like
your idea of having a master / slave approach so that every Agent pulls the
data relevant for itself by request to the main Simulation Agent. As for
dynamically creating Agents I followed your MobilityFactory examples and it
works fine.

I noticed that in the past there was a different approach using a Node Agent
Controller.


Anyway thanks again,
Dimitris




On 19/03/2008, Todd Wright <twright at bbn.com> wrote:
>
> Dimitrios Traskas wrote:
> > Hi to all,
> >
> > I have managed to slowly build up my simulation project and came to the
> > point that I need to dynamically create a couple of thousand Agents. I
> > have read the thread about Dynamic Agent Creation but I was wondering if
> > I could get some tips in order to generate thousands of Agents for
> > various simulation models. I also need to pass to each one of these
> > Agents some data. They need to know their working shifts through the day
> > and how they are going to perform (as it is a simulation). What would
> > you say is the best practice to do that? Do I need to use the LDM Data
> > Assets or can I just solve my problem by pushing a collection of data in
> > the blackboard which is then picked up by each of the Agents after they
> > are created?
>
>
> Yes, I'd use the second approach:  use Relays to push the data to the
> agents.
>
> A similar approach is to have the new agents "report" to the "master"
> agent
> when they are created, via a relay, and the master can send back a relay
> with
> the data.
>
> Todd
>
>
> >
> > I would appreciate any tips on the subject because the dynamic creation
> > of Agents on my project is critical and I dont want to waste any memory
> > or resources. It has to be very efficient and reliable as the data that
> > is passed to each Agent can affect the end result dramatically.
> >
> >
> > Regards
> > Dimitris
> >
> >
>
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Cougaar-developers mailing list
> > Cougaar-developers at cougaar.org
> > http://cougaar.org/mailman/listinfo/cougaar-developers
>
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From dtraskas at googlemail.com  Mon Mar 24 18:17:37 2008
From: dtraskas at googlemail.com (Dimitrios Traskas)
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:17:37 +0000
Subject: Agent communication / Relay subjects
Message-ID: <4f0d935a0803241517y37dfe0d2v43c7acb2f3d3f416@mail.gmail.com>

Hi to all,

I have a question about best practices in regards with Relays and Agent
communication. Agent A sends a message to Agent B and expects replies of
three different types (CONFIRM, REFUSE, FAIL). These in a sense are three
Verbs that I can use for the Relay communication. The CONFIRM and REFUSE
messages should be sent with an object attached that can provide some
information about the reasons of confirmation or refusal. In an analogy we
have an email with subject CONFIRM or REFUSE and a body of text that gives
further explanations.

At the moment I am encapsulating within that body the subject of the Relay
message and just extract it when the message is received. Is there any other
way to have a subject and body for Relay messages? It would be useful to
hear some recommendations and examples from other people.



Many Thanks
Dimitris
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From crossfire2003 at gmx.de  Wed Mar 26 02:45:13 2008
From: crossfire2003 at gmx.de (Christian Bernardt)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:45:13 +0100
Subject: Creating Agents without XML
Message-ID: <e65d710e0803252345s24247bdcof3a0a6f7a1b2e53c@mail.gmail.com>

Hi there,

I am trying to figure out, how to create an agent society without defining
the agents in a xml file. This way of managing societies is described on
page 18 of the CAD. (section 3.2.1 Initialization). I have created a number
of empty Nodes representing the spaces, the agents shall be created in. I
would like to create agents in these societies, while cougaar is running.
1.)How can I add/remove agents to/from the nodes during runtime?
2.)Can I create such agents from outside of a node? If, how?
3.)How can I address the nodes that I have initialized in the xml file?

I am totally new to cougaar, can anybody give me a jump start on how to
achieve these things?

Thanks in advance.  Chris
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From dtraskas at googlemail.com  Wed Mar 26 16:48:35 2008
From: dtraskas at googlemail.com (Dimitrios Traskas)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:48:35 +0000
Subject: Creating Agents without XML
Message-ID: <4f0d935a0803261348o2bbce8a3jf60471811a9b7990@mail.gmail.com>

Hi Chris,

I had a similar problem a few days ago in regards with creating Agents
dynamically during runtime. If you see the threads about Dynamic Agent
Creation that have been posted a week ago you will get a better idea.

Basically you need to have a node.xml file where you specify your node
details. You then have a Plugin that initialises your main Agent which you
will use to generate new Agents. You need to generate an XML file for each
Agent you are going to create, which you can then delete on Agent creation.
Have a look at this email which explains everything in detail
http://www.mail-archive.com/cougaar-developers at cougaar.org/msg00014.html

I am a beginner with Cougaar too and followed the tutorials and emails in
the cougaar developers mailing list which are very helpful. With the link I
gave you I managed to dunamically create about 15000 Agents for some
simulation experiments I am running. However I do not know if there is any
way to create the Agents without the need for an XML file. Anyway please let
me know if you need more help.



Regards
Dimitris
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From twright at bbn.com  Wed Mar 26 16:49:49 2008
From: twright at bbn.com (Todd Wright)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:49:49 -0400
Subject: Agent communication / Relay subjects
In-Reply-To: <4f0d935a0803241517y37dfe0d2v43c7acb2f3d3f416@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803241517y37dfe0d2v43c7acb2f3d3f416@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <47EAB6ED.7060502@bbn.com>


Your usage sounds good.  The relay "content" can be a data structure with both 
"subject" and "body" fields.

Todd

Dimitrios Traskas wrote:
> Hi to all,
> 
> I have a question about best practices in regards with Relays and Agent 
> communication. Agent A sends a message to Agent B and expects replies of 
> three different types (CONFIRM, REFUSE, FAIL). These in a sense are 
> three Verbs that I can use for the Relay communication. The CONFIRM and 
> REFUSE messages should be sent with an object attached that can provide 
> some information about the reasons of confirmation or refusal. In an 
> analogy we have an email with subject CONFIRM or REFUSE and a body of 
> text that gives further explanations.
> 
> At the moment I am encapsulating within that body the subject of the 
> Relay message and just extract it when the message is received. Is there 
> any other way to have a subject and body for Relay messages? It would be 
> useful to hear some recommendations and examples from other people.
> 
> 
>       
> Many Thanks
> Dimitris
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Cougaar-developers mailing list
> Cougaar-developers at cougaar.org
> http://cougaar.org/mailman/listinfo/cougaar-developers


From dtraskas at googlemail.com  Wed Mar 26 17:34:20 2008
From: dtraskas at googlemail.com (Dimitrios Traskas)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:34:20 +0000
Subject: Relay - Blackboard Economics
Message-ID: <4f0d935a0803261434r5c039ea7vd6bb974c730e4ca8@mail.gmail.com>

Hi to all,

I have a question in regards with Relays and objects in the Blackboard. If
an Agent A has an established communication with an Agent B and they send to
each other a number of messages what happens with messages that have been
read and processed? Are they "garbage" collected or is it the responsibility
of client code to get rid of them? I have thousand of messages being sent
between Agents and I am wondering what happens once I go through a normal
execute routine where I check the added messages in a collection. Once I
read the message what is the lifetime of that message?


Cheers
Dimitris
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From twright at bbn.com  Wed Mar 26 17:47:42 2008
From: twright at bbn.com (Todd Wright)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:47:42 -0400
Subject: Creating Agents without XML
In-Reply-To: <e65d710e0803252345s24247bdcof3a0a6f7a1b2e53c@mail.gmail.com>
References: <e65d710e0803252345s24247bdcof3a0a6f7a1b2e53c@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <47EAC47E.9090509@bbn.com>

Christian Bernardt wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I am trying to figure out, how to create an agent society without 
> defining the agents in a xml file. This way of managing societies is 
> described on page 18 of the CAD. (section 3.2.1 Initialization). I have 
> created a number of empty Nodes representing the spaces, the agents 
> shall be created in. I would like to create agents in these societies, 
> while cougaar is running.
> 1.)How can I add/remove agents to/from the nodes during runtime?

You can use the blackboard-based "AddTicket" approach, as discussed in:
   http://www.cougaar.org/pipermail/cougaar-developers/2007-May/002349.html
This approach works from any agent or even a remote node.

Or, if you only want to add an agent to the local node, you can call the 
"addAgent" method.  This requires a plugin in the node agent.  The above 
"AddTicket" code uses the "addAgent" method.  Here's an example:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
package whatever;

import org.cougaar.core.agent.AgentContainer;
import org.cougaar.core.component.ComponentSupport;
import org.cougaar.core.mts.MessageAddress;
import org.cougaar.core.node.NodeControlService;
import org.cougaar.core.service.LoggingService;
import org.cougaar.core.service.ThreadService;
import org.cougaar.core.thread.Schedulable;

public class AddAgent extends ComponentSupport {
   private LoggingService log;
   private ThreadService ts;
   private AgentContainer ac;

   public void setLoggingService(LoggingService log) { this.log = log; }
   public void setThreadService(ThreadService ts) { this.ts = ts; }
   public void setNodeControlService(NodeControlService ncs) {
     ac = (ncs == null ? null : ncs.getRootContainer());
   }

   public void start() {
     super.start();

     // add our agent after 5 seconds.  For threading info see:
     // 
http://www.cougaar.org/pipermail/cougaar-developers/2004-October/001491.html
     Runnable r = new Runnable() {
       public void run() {
         log.shout("Adding agent Foo");
         ac.addAgent(MessageAddress.getMessageAddress("Foo"));
       }
     };
     Schedulable s = ts.getThread(this, r);
     log.shout("Waiting 5 seconds");
     s.schedule(5*1000);
   }
}
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"MyNode.xml":
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<node name="Node1">
   <component class="whatever.AddAgent"/>  <!-- must be in the node agent -->
</node>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Foo.xml":
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<agent name="Foo">
   <!-- anything, e.g. the hello-world plugin in the demo-hello.zip -->
   <component class="org.cougaar.demo.hello.HelloPlugin"/>
</agent>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Logging output:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2008-03-26 17:17:01,410 SHOUT [XMLComponentInitializerServiceProvider] - 
Initializing node "Node1" from XML file "MyNode.xml"
2008-03-26 17:17:11,427 WARN  [AgentLoader] - Node1: Node Node1 contains zero 
agents
2008-03-26 17:17:11,444 SHOUT [AddAgent] - Node1: Waiting 5 seconds
2008-03-26 05:17:16,441 SHOUT [DOTS] - .
2008-03-26 17:17:16,449 SHOUT [AddAgent] - Node1: Adding agent Foo
2008-03-26 17:17:16,694 SHOUT [HelloPlugin] - Foo: Hello, world!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note that you must have a "Foo.xml" file in the Cougaar config path (e.g. the 
current directory).  There's an enhancement request to allow an in-memory 
specification of what plugins to put in the agent, but that hasn't been 
implemented yet.

> 2.)Can I create such agents from outside of a node? If, how?

You'll need some way to tell the node to create the agent, e.g. a servlet.

 From there you can use either of the above techniques:
   1) Use the blackboard-based "AddTicket"
or
   2) Use the service-based "addAgent" method

> 3.)How can I address the nodes that I have initialized in the xml file?

You name the agents when you create them, e.g. the above "Foo" example.  You 
can send blackboard relays to them.

Todd

> 
> I am totally new to cougaar, can anybody give me a jump start on how to 
> achieve these things?
> 
> Thanks in advance.  Chris
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Cougaar-developers mailing list
> Cougaar-developers at cougaar.org
> http://cougaar.org/mailman/listinfo/cougaar-developers


From twright at bbn.com  Wed Mar 26 17:50:16 2008
From: twright at bbn.com (Todd Wright)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:50:16 -0400
Subject: Creating Agents without XML
In-Reply-To: <4f0d935a0803261348o2bbce8a3jf60471811a9b7990@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803261348o2bbce8a3jf60471811a9b7990@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <47EAC518.3080907@bbn.com>


> However I do not know if there
> is any way to create the Agents without the need for an XML file.

Yeah, that's on our enhancement "TODO" list.

Todd


From twright at bbn.com  Wed Mar 26 18:13:52 2008
From: twright at bbn.com (Todd Wright)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:13:52 -0400
Subject: Relay - Blackboard Economics
In-Reply-To: <4f0d935a0803261434r5c039ea7vd6bb974c730e4ca8@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803261434r5c039ea7vd6bb974c730e4ca8@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <47EACAA0.2020307@bbn.com>


Plugins must use publishRemove to cleanup publishAdd'ed objects.

The ping demo uses the following pattern:
   1. The "PingSender" publishAdd's a new relay
   2. The "PingReceiver" publishChange's the relay to send back a response
   3. The "PingSender" publishRemove's its relay
   4. goto (1)
So, every ping iteration creates a new relay and removes it.  We cleanup after 
every iteration.  Note that the relay must be publishRemove'd on the agent 
where it was publishAdd'ed.

Another common pattern is:
   1. The sender publishAdd's a new relay "r1"
   2. The receiver publishAdd's its response in a new relay "r2"
   3. The sender publishChange's relay "r1" in response to "r2"
   4. The receiver publishChange's relay "r2" in response to "r1"
   5. goto (3)
In this pattern the two relays, "r1" and "r2", acts as content "channels". 
There is no memory leak because we only publishAdd these two relays.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both of these design patterns. 
Either works fine in practice.

Todd

Dimitrios Traskas wrote:
> Hi to all,
> 
> I have a question in regards with Relays and objects in the Blackboard. 
> If an Agent A has an established communication with an Agent B and they 
> send to each other a number of messages what happens with messages that 
> have been read and processed? Are they "garbage" collected or is it the 
> responsibility of client code to get rid of them? I have thousand of 
> messages being sent between Agents and I am wondering what happens once 
> I go through a normal execute routine where I check the added messages 
> in a collection. Once I read the message what is the lifetime of that 
> message?
> 
> 
> Cheers
> Dimitris
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Cougaar-developers mailing list
> Cougaar-developers at cougaar.org
> http://cougaar.org/mailman/listinfo/cougaar-developers


From dtraskas at googlemail.com  Wed Mar 26 18:30:48 2008
From: dtraskas at googlemail.com (Dimitrios Traskas)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:30:48 +0000
Subject: Relay - Blackboard Economics
In-Reply-To: <47EACAA0.2020307@bbn.com>
References: <4f0d935a0803261434r5c039ea7vd6bb974c730e4ca8@mail.gmail.com>
	<47EACAA0.2020307@bbn.com>
Message-ID: <4f0d935a0803261530h54a3be22ufb1a06bd5dd6774e@mail.gmail.com>

Thanks Todd,

I opened the PingSender and PingReceiver files again and noticed the line
that removes the relay. I must say the information I needed was there but
didn't see it in the first place. Good thing you mentioned that the
publishRemove has to take place from the relay originator.


Cheers
Dimitris




On 26/03/2008, Todd Wright <twright at bbn.com> wrote:
>
>
> Plugins must use publishRemove to cleanup publishAdd'ed objects.
>
> The ping demo uses the following pattern:
>    1. The "PingSender" publishAdd's a new relay
>    2. The "PingReceiver" publishChange's the relay to send back a response
>    3. The "PingSender" publishRemove's its relay
>    4. goto (1)
> So, every ping iteration creates a new relay and removes it.  We cleanup
> after
> every iteration.  Note that the relay must be publishRemove'd on the agent
> where it was publishAdd'ed.
>
> Another common pattern is:
>    1. The sender publishAdd's a new relay "r1"
>    2. The receiver publishAdd's its response in a new relay "r2"
>    3. The sender publishChange's relay "r1" in response to "r2"
>    4. The receiver publishChange's relay "r2" in response to "r1"
>    5. goto (3)
> In this pattern the two relays, "r1" and "r2", acts as content "channels".
> There is no memory leak because we only publishAdd these two relays.
>
> There are advantages and disadvantages to both of these design patterns.
> Either works fine in practice.
>
> Todd
>
>
> Dimitrios Traskas wrote:
> > Hi to all,
> >
> > I have a question in regards with Relays and objects in the Blackboard.
> > If an Agent A has an established communication with an Agent B and they
> > send to each other a number of messages what happens with messages that
> > have been read and processed? Are they "garbage" collected or is it the
> > responsibility of client code to get rid of them? I have thousand of
> > messages being sent between Agents and I am wondering what happens once
> > I go through a normal execute routine where I check the added messages
> > in a collection. Once I read the message what is the lifetime of that
> > message?
> >
> >
> > Cheers
> > Dimitris
> >
> >
>
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Cougaar-developers mailing list
> > Cougaar-developers at cougaar.org
> > http://cougaar.org/mailman/listinfo/cougaar-developers
>
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From dtraskas at googlemail.com  Wed Mar 26 19:16:42 2008
From: dtraskas at googlemail.com (Dimitrios Traskas)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:16:42 +0000
Subject: Logging
Message-ID: <4f0d935a0803261616v5bba480cn44ad6618898e070a@mail.gmail.com>

Hi again,

I have a quick question in regards with logging. I want to save results of a
simulation experiment in separate log files. In essence I am recording the
exchange of messages and try to measure how effective my system is. I have
read a few things about the LoggerFactory although not sure how to use that
to save results in a simple csv file. Would you recommend using that class
or maybe have a separate Agent where Relays are sent with the logging
information? I need to be able to save the information from different Agents
and share the logging instance. Any help would be appreciated.


Regards
Dimitris
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From gvidaver at bbn.com  Wed Mar 26 20:48:47 2008
From: gvidaver at bbn.com (Gordon Vidaver)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:48:47 -0400
Subject: Relay - Blackboard Economics
In-Reply-To: <4f0d935a0803261434r5c039ea7vd6bb974c730e4ca8@mail.gmail.co
 m>
References: <4f0d935a0803261434r5c039ea7vd6bb974c730e4ca8@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <E1JegFu-0006hL-5i@mx12.bbn.com>

Hi,
         It's the responsibility of the client to remove them from 
the blackboard if they are no longer needed.  The relays will 
accumulate unless explicitly removed.  You should be able to see this 
if you have the "tasks" servlet loaded 
(org.cougaar.planning.servlet.PlanViewServlet) and browse to the 
receiving agent (e.g. 
http://localhost:8800/$YOUR-RECEIVER-AGENT/tasks).  If you look for 
UniqueObjects, you should see the thousands of relays that have been 
received.  If you don't need to keep them around, the client code can 
publishRemove them from the blackboard.

         Gordon

At 05:34 PM 3/26/2008 Wednesday, Dimitrios Traskas wrote:
>Hi to all,
>
>I have a question in regards with Relays and objects in the 
>Blackboard. If an Agent A has an established communication with an 
>Agent B and they send to each other a number of messages what 
>happens with messages that have been read and processed? Are they 
>"garbage" collected or is it the responsibility of client code to 
>get rid of them? I have thousand of messages being sent between 
>Agents and I am wondering what happens once I go through a normal 
>execute routine where I check the added messages in a collection. 
>Once I read the message what is the lifetime of that message?
>
>
>Cheers
>Dimitris
>_______________________________________________
>Cougaar-developers mailing list
>Cougaar-developers at cougaar.org
>http://cougaar.org/mailman/listinfo/cougaar-developers

Gordon Vidaver                  BBN Technologies
gvidaver at bbn.com                Office 6/323
617 873-3558                    10 Moulton St.
617 873-2616 (fax)              Cambridge, MA 02138
866-322-9311 (toll free)