Towards A Role-Based Framework for DistributedSystems Management

Abstract

Roles have been widely used for modeling theauthority, responsibility, functions, and interactions,associated with manager positions within organizations.In this paper, we discuss the issues related tospecifying roles for both human and automated managersof distributed computer systems. The starting point isthat a role can be defined in terms of the authorizationand obligation policies, for a particular managerposition, which specify what actions the manager ispermitted or is obliged to do on a set of targetobjects. This permits individuals to be assigned orremoved from positions without respecifying the policiesfor the role. However these policies are insufficientfor fully specifying relationships between managers andthe targets they manage or between different managerroles. There is a need to specify the interactionprotocols and how managers coordinate and synchronizetheir activities. The role-based framework consists ofa set of tools enabling the creation of roles frompolicies, the specification of the concurrencyconstraints for role activities and the specification ofprotocols for role interaction. In addition, the issuesrelated to conflicts which can occur between policieswithin a role or between interacting roles are brieflydiscussed.