Glossary

Admin: Admin users have the highest level of permissions in EAASI. They are responsible for user account management in their organization and have a higher level of control over resources. Admins also retain all the permissions/actions of Configuration Users as well.
Base: A base is an environment as initially created in EAASI. “Base” essentially refers to a starting point for configuration and can thus be highly contextual to a workflow, but it most frequently refers to an Environment where only a baseline operating system has been installed, without additional specific domain- or content-specific software dependencies (saving those specific dependencies for derivative Environments). Base Environments will generally take up the most storage space in an instance.
Computer Image: A system disk image obtained by the user either from a pre-existing (outside of EAASI) virtual machine, or from the hard drive of a physical machine. Can nominally be imported into EAASI and used as an image resource, but severe limitations discourage the use of Computer Images with EAASI in v2021-10. See import-image.
Configuration User: Configuration users have the lowest set of permissions in EAASI. They are able to configure or edit metadata for existing resources and run environments, but can not interact access user account management features.
Content: Content are items from a digital collection; that is, digital information or works from institutional collections intended for representation (via software) and interpretation by users (in an environment). Within EAASI, the line between Software and Content (which may also be a piece of “software” in the general sense) is largely contextual and workflow related - a file or file-set is “Software” if it is intended to be used as a tool to accurately render and interact with software-dependent Content. A file or file-set is Content if it is the intended target of rendering. (It is assumed that Content may be subject to further access restrictions depending on digital collection practice at each organization.)
Content Environment: A “Content Environment” is a derivative environment in which content has been imported, saved, and/or installed into an existing environment. The intended use of a Content Environment is to provide access to digital/collection objects as they would have been rendered in their original (or a representative) computing environment. Content Environments are marked with the ‘Content’ label in the EAASI interface.
Derivative: Any configuration performed and saved on a base environment in EAASI is captured and referred to as a derivative environment. Derivatives are stored as delta/diff files from the original base to conserve storage (see image). Derivatives allow EAASI users to build off previous work without starting from scratch every time a new environment is needed. The derivative chain of any given environment can be traced via its Details page.
Environment: Environments are emulated computing systems - i.e., a combination of emulated hardware and software components. The goal of EAASI is to make it simple to create and run environments in a browser. Every environment must have at least two pieces: a hardware configuration and bootable software. The latter could be stored in an object, but in the vast majority of cases is an installed operating system stored on an image.
Hardware Configuration: An environment’s hardware configuration refers to the emulator configuration settings that replicate the hardware of a physical computer system. Within EAASI, these configurations are initially provided as templates, then saved as part of an environment’s metadata.
Image: A disk image representing and storing an environment’s system drive. Most Environments are a combination of a hardware configuration and an image containing a bootable operating system. EAASI images are stored in the QCOW2 file format. The “copy-on-write” functionality of the QCOW2 format enables the system of base and derivative Environments at the core of EAASI’s workflows and storage efficiency.
Object: The collection of files that represent the materials used to transmit, install, and/or operate software or content in EAASI. This could be the disk image(s) of an installation CD or an archive file packaging software components together.
Organization: Since v2021.10, user accounts in an EAASI server can be arranged into arbitrary groups referred to as “organizations”. Admin-level users can only see and control other user accounts within their Organization.
Resource: A resource refers broadly to a usable entity in EAASI: an environment, software, or content. It is the combination of an object and any metadata necessary to render that object.
Software: Software refers to application and system software, including operating systems, commercial and open source software applications, device drivers, etc.