Shipboard Software Deployment Tools for Complex Heterogeneous Systems

Navy tactical software, such as the AN/SQQ89A (V)15 surface ASW environment, requires hundreds of interacting software components deployed across a heterogeneous set of compute platforms and communication devices. Navy operators tasked to perform maintenance often do not have the technical expertise with multiple operating systems and hardware devices deployed on the platform. Detailed Software Version Description (SVD) documents are necessary to ensure that an operator with limited expertise can perform the complex job of reinstallation and maintenance. This proposal seeks to design and implement a software installation and maintenance toolkit that greatly reduces the effort, knowledge, and time required for these activities. The toolkit will automate nearly every activity required for system installation and maintenance. Of particular note is removing the requirement that shipboard personal be required to edit configuration files and input data on a command line as both of these activities are error prone and can be confusing. A significant part of the tool design will be aimed at the system integrator to enable efficient packaging of the deployed systems and for deployment testing prior to package dissemination.