Electric Cloud Rains Clarity on Build Process
New tool gives developers insight into parallel build log files
December 15, 2005 —
During the development process, it’s easy to tell when a build is going on: Everyone’s usually gone home for the night. But when a build is still compiling the next morning, it’s a good bet something’s gone sideways in the compiler. Specializing in cluster-based builds, Electric Cloud on Nov. 15 released ElectricInsight, a tool that it claims gives developers a view into just what’s going on inside those parallel builds on compilation clusters.
Mike Maciag, Electric Cloud’s CEO, said that for build engineers, dealing with the reliability, performance and debugging issues of their builds has traditionally been a black art. ”For the first time, we’re taking the build out of the black box,” said Maciag. He described build log files that are hundreds of thousands of pages long, incomplete and not human-readable. “I have two choices: Either do nothing, or find someone who’s very skilled to spend days or weeks crawling through these pages of log files. What ElectricInsight has done is it has taken the days or weeks and made them into minutes.”
ElectricInsight is the brainchild of Eric Melski, a senior engineer at Electric Cloud. He said the software works by creating a virtualized server on the build cluster using Electric Cloud’s file system, which allows ElectricInsight to observe exactly which files are being accessed and which nodes of the cluster are currently working. It then translates the disparate log file entries and displays them graphically.
“We’re now able to give you a visual representation of [the build process],” said Melski. “You could have one node working and four nodes idle. Do I need to change something in my make file or something in my jobs to make this faster?”
Maciag went on to explain more scenarios in which ElectricInsight could be useful. “For example, let’s say that there’s a serialization in there somewhere in a parallel build. There are thousands of jobs that take place during the build—one might be creating a serialization that’s slowing it down. There’s almost no way for me to figure that out without ElectricInsight. You can see down to the job level and see where it’s being serialized. From a breakage standpoint, I can draw down right into the individual jobs and see if there are conflicts, and where they are.”
With the release of ElectricInsight, Electric Cloud has renamed its namesake cluster-based build software as ElectricAccelerator. The company released version 3.0 of the software at the end of November, with the primary changes being compatibility with ElectricInsight.
Currently, ElectricInsight works only with ElectricAccelerator, though Maciag said his company is considering offering a version that works with other cluster-based compilers.
ElectricInsight is available today and costs US$20,000 per cluster. ElectricAccelerator costs $2,000 per seat.
Share this link: http://sdt.bz/29036
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Zeichick’s Take: Radio moves from analog waveforms to digital packets
Streaming radio highlights the need for streaming applications to be designed to take up as little bandwidth as possible
|
|
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Appcelerator Acquires Cocoafish to Add Instant Mobile Cloud Capabilities to its Industry Leading Titanium Platform
Appcelerator Offers Messaging, Social, Location and Storage Mobile Cloud Services to All Mobile App Publishers
|
|
ComponentOne Releases a Collection of 40+ UI Widgets Powered by HTML5 and jQuery
ComponentOne has announced the 2012 release of Wijmo: a kit of UI widgets for HTML5 and jQuery development
|
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists
|
|
Not so fast when it comes to testing in the cloud
Developers face outsourcing, virtual lab management and mobile devices as obstacles
|
|
Xceed releases UX-focused suite for Microsoft’s WPF
"Blendables" helps match user experiences to developer visions
|
Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.
|
|
Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
|
|
RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
|
|
GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
|
The Hidden Costs of Software Licensing
Moving beyond paper-based software licensing to more flexible, software-based licensing is a business decision. There is a growing trend tow...
|
|
Case Study: You May Need a Development Mechanic
As a contractor for a major financial player in Germany, SOBEGE, a German-based consultancy specializing in embedded IT and web services, wa...
|
|
Ensuring Software Quality at a Major International Bank
One of the world’s leading international banks has adopted AgitarOne technology for delivering generated unit tests for their Java software...
|
|
Load Testing Adobe Flex Applications
Adobe Flex applications may be different from applications you’ve worked with before. For classic HTML web applications, the server does all...
|