Network setup

Gridella is installed and started at several computers to build-up a P-Grid network. Each instance of Gridella must know at least one address and port of another computer running Gridella for bootstrapping.

Example: 4 computer want to build-up a P-Grid network

Computer 1 can be used as bootstrap host for the other hosts by setting its address and port (pc1.p-grid.org:1805) as bootstrap host(s) property at the P-Grid preferences screen (click the File | Preferences menu to go there) for computer 2, 3, and 4.
Computer 2, 3, and 4 can now bootstrap with computer 1 and explore each other by exchanging further messages.

To enable Gridella to build-up a P-Grid tree and to enable peers to specialize for a path (at the beginning each peer is responsible for all data) a minimum amount of shared files is required (see library preferences). The current P-Grid constants require between 50 and 100 shared files per participating peer and about 4-6 peers to enable specialization of at least one peer. Some P-Grid constants are currently required to be hard-coded and can not be changed by users.
But: Specialization is not required for P-Grid to work accordingly!

Running several instances at one computer

Gridella can also be started several times at one computer to build-up a P-Grid network. Therefore all installed files have to be copied in as many different directories as desired instances.

Example: 4 instances at one computer to build-up a P-Grid network

If Gridella was already started once in the original installation directory, the files DataTable.xml and RoutingTable.xml should not be copied to the other directories because they contain peer specific information.
Each instance of Gridella will now start on a different port. The default port of Gridella is 1805, used by the first started instance. Further instances will use the ports 1806, 1807, ... All instances share the same property files containing setup information about bootstrap host(s), shared folders, etc. If a properties are changed and applied at one instance they are also written to the property files, but the applied settings have no affect on other running instances before their restart.

To create a P-Grid network with several instances at one computer, the designated bootstrap instance (C:\Program Files\Gridella) should be started first. The local host name and the used port are entered as bootstrap host(s) property at the P-Grid preferences screen. The host name and the used port can be seen at the local host property at the network preferences screen. Shared directories should be given in relative paths, e.g., Shared/, to share different files at each instance. The files to be shared have to be copied in the directories C:\Program Files\Gridella\Shared, C:\Program Files\Gridella2\Shared, ... The other instances can be started after applying all setup changes at the first instance.

Reset a P-Grid network

The P-Grid network can be reset, i.e., build-up from scratch again, by resetting each Gridella instance using the File | Reset menu. To avoid interferences during resetting each peer, the network can also be reset by closing all instances and deleting the files DataTable.xml and RoutingTable.xml in each installation directory.