xxseub@osprey.lerc.nasa.gov (Steven Eubanks) (01/15/91)
Sorry, I was informed that my return address was bogus; hence the repost. I am looking for anyone who has any information/experience regarding "rotoring" or distributing Telnet connections across a pool of multiple equivalent hosts (IP addresses). CURRENT ENVIRONMENT: This site currently has a cluster (yes, of course VAXes) of host machines, configured identically (applications as well as hardware) providing central application services to a large LAN composed of PCs/MACintoshes/Workstations (2000+). In this (VAXcluster) configuration, any PC/MAC/WS user can access any of the clustered host machines to execute these centrally-located applications. Until recently host connectivity across the LAN was provided by a non-TCP protocol suite which provided a "rotoring" capability which "pseudo-randomly selected" which of the n identical nodes the user would attach to. Voila! Instant connection distribution. [Notice I didn't quite say load balancing ;-)] Now, having installed TGV's Multinet on the VAXcluster, and migrating more of our networked PCs to TCP, we are wishing to duplicate that same "rotor group connectivity" using TCP/IP. PROBLEM/QUESTIONS: How?? Has anyone successfully done/addressed this? Since all our PCs/MACs/WSs are directly connected to the ethernet LAN, there's no intermediate device to distribute the connections. DNS, at least as much as I know of the RFC-compliant version, doesn't address this problem. I can't think of anything that can be done on the VAX end (though I'm willing to be proved wrong). Surely, we're not the only site having reached this dilemma. Ideas?? Suggestions?? [Please address all distributed computing environment rhetoric to /dev/null; we're working on it. :-) ] Thanks in advance for all the advice! Steve -- Steven W. Eubanks, EDS/LIMS NASA Lewis Research Center Internet:xxseub@osprey.lerc.nasa.gov 21000 Brookpark Rd. (216)433-8498 Cleveland, OH 44135 Disclaimer: Opinions like mileage, may vary.