loura@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (ralph.e.loura) (10/28/89)
I am not sure if this belongs in this news group, but... We have several UNIX(r) System VR3 workstations (386, AT&T 3B2s, etc) that have been configured in a loosly coupled distributed processing environment. They all have a similar view of the file sys. and mail and uucp. The goal is to create a psuedo/virtual machine using several/many physical machines. We don't do process migration at all, but would like to. We were considering developing our own server to query for available CPU's, but have heard of an HP product (called BROKER I think) that does this. What I am looking for is information on BROKER, experiences using it, avail., cost, ... If HP is listening (and I am sure someone is) maybe you could point me to the right people to talk to. Thanks in advance... -------------------------------------- | Ralph E. Loura | | Room 1B-201 | | 2000 N. Naperville Road | | Naperville Illinois 60566 | | | | [att!]pueblo!loura | | or | | loura%pueblo%att@research.att.com | --------------------------------------
taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) (10/31/89)
Ralph Loura (loura@cbnewsc.ATT.COM) asks about a distributed computing
software product from HP called (he thinks) BROKER...
Well, I can't say much about it, but there is a product that HP has
had internally for a while that they're getting prepared to ship under
the name "Task Broker". It's scheduled to hit the streets some time
in the next six weeks [I think] and should prove to be an interesting
addition to the toolbox available to system administrators and others
that are concerned with network-wide performance rather than just
individual machine performance.
Probably the single best places to look for information are: "HP Design &
Automation" where I have a piece queued, "Unix Today!", where Ross Greenberg
has a piece on the product queued, and from HP themselves. Also, there
aren't that many shows between now and UniForum in January (the two big
ones being a CAD conference ?next week? and Unix Expo in NY later this
week) so if they're timing the announcement to a conference then we might
hear about it within two weeks, or it might be about 10 weeks.
In the meantime, you might well find it interesting to review some of
the papers from the most recent INTEREX conference, including "Designing
Performance Tools for the Expanding Unix System Environment" from Danny
Glover and other HP-ites, and "Software Development Management in HP-UX"
from Bill Hooper (of HP).
A quickie; during Unix Expo, HP is supposedly scheduled to release some
of their first "groupware" products. Coming from various groups of HP
in Fort Collins, there might well be other software that your group
would be interested in; one thing's for sure -- HP realizes that any
sort of distributed environment is not going to be homogeneous HP
computers, so I expect their groupware will similarly be designed to
work on multiple platforms [Sun? DEC? AT&T?]
Enough prognosticating for now...
-- Dave Taylor
Intuitive Systems
Mountain View, California
taylor@limbo.intuitive.com or {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylortaylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) (10/31/89)
Moments ago, I posted a note that said: > [Task Broker] is scheduled to hit the streets some time in the next six > weeks ... As a matter of fact, my sources tell me that it's already been released as of this week at the AUTOFACT conference.... check out the Wall Street Journal for an article on the product, as well as looking in the other places indicated in my previous article (e.g. HP D&A, UT!, etc). Now as soon as I can get a press release on this, I can post some further information for people to read .. until then, however, it's not obvious what exactly the release consists of. Anyone at HP willing to comment? -- Dave Taylor Intuitive Systems Mountain View, California taylor@limbo.intuitive.com or {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylor