Dream Console User's Guide
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Dream Console 0.4b - - March 2003

The Dream Console is the primary tool for managing a computer that is part of the Dream network. This guide is concerned with explaining how to use this tool. If you don't know what the Dream is or need further explanation about Dream concepts please have a look at the Dream webpage . Note that the Console is still in beta state, so you may experience unforeseen problems. In this case, please drop me a message describing the problem at mike.preuss@uni-dortmund.de .

If you are completely new to the Dream Console please start with the inspect section where you find a description of the basic concepts.

What can be done with the console?

Inspect Inspect what is happening locally and on the connected machines (machines with regular communication to the console), get information about the different Dream components as experiments and users.
Search (not implemented yet)
Search for Dream components throughout the Dream network. This is more than inspect because not only information about the connected machines but also from distant ones is fetched and compared to a user given pattern to find components that probably exist but whose location is unknown.
Start experiments Because running experiments is the primary aim of the Dream, the console enables users to put them onto the Dream network. By emitting an experiment, the console user gets the experiment owner.
Control and modify experiments Experiments started by the console user or any other user who grants the needed access rights can be watched and modified at runtime. Modifications can be done at the experiment level (e.g. change parameters) or at the network level (e.g. change distribution properties). Even premature shutdown can be done although usually only experiment owners or Dream administrators have access to this function. If enabled by the experiment by emitting the appropriate data, the subcomponents can also be presented using different graphical views.
Review and analyze experiments
(not implemented yet)
Throughout an experiment run and after finishing, all the data previously specified as needed is collected. It can be presented graphically again or analysed using the console's analysis tools.