mbell@sting.hw.stratus.com (04/03/91)
From: mbell@sting.hw.stratus.com (Michael Isabelle)
Subject: Multi-System Batch/Batchq/Jobs, Software Control
Keywords: Cornell University ISIS Project
Date: 21 March 91
Have heard of ISIS developed at Cornell University, need info on ftp
site or whom to contact for additional information.
Need information on automated batch/batchq/jobs type software,
freeware/etc. Required software would handle batch jobs over multiple
systems, balancing system loading by monitoring system loading/performance,
may have interactive front end to query users on potential job/run size.
Matching jobs to system loading and performance, where multiple smaller
jobs would be run on one system or only one major job per system.
Some jobs would be interactive and may not require a batch process
but a recommendation to the user of what compute server/servers resources
are available for use, by his/her job size.
Michael Isabelle
(508) 490-6787
Stratus Computer
Marlboro, Mass.
mbell@sting.hw.stratus.com ***standard***disclaimer***ken@CS.Cornell.EDU (Ken Birman) (04/03/91)
In article <4786@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> mbell@sting.hw.stratus.com () writes: > >From: mbell@sting.hw.stratus.com (Michael Isabelle) >Subject: Multi-System Batch/Batchq/Jobs, Software Control >Keywords: Cornell University ISIS Project >Date: 21 March 91 > Have heard of ISIS developed at Cornell University, need info on ftp >site or whom to contact for additional information. > Need information on automated batch/batchq/jobs type software, >freeware/etc. Required software would handle batch jobs over multiple >systems, balancing system loading by monitoring system loading/performance, >may have interactive front end to query users on potential job/run size. >Matching jobs to system loading and performance, where multiple smaller >jobs would be run on one system or only one major job per system. > Some jobs would be interactive and may not require a batch process >but a recommendation to the user of what compute server/servers resources >are available for use, by his/her job size. The free version of ISIS is available from a number of FTP sites including ftp.cs.cornell.edu/pub and UUNET.uu.net (networking/ISIS...) It comes with a manual and is missing one minor bug fix that recently became very important: there is a chmod(ux_addr.sun_path, 0x666); in a file called protos/pr_client.c that should use mode 0666, not 0x666. With this one change, the system comes right up and is very solid on a wide range of platforms. However, the free version lacks the batch/jobs software subsystem that you seem to be looking for. The commercial version of ISIS (V3.0, available from ISIS Distributed Systems Inc. -- ids@isis.com) has such a facility but charges a licensing fee. And, it requires some features of the commercial version of ISIS, so you would have to get the whole system from the company to have this facility. The IDS program -- called "network resource manager", although perhaps this is not as evocative a product name as it could be -- focuses on the monitoring and load balancing side of the problem, and can be used interactively or at a program level as well as in a batch mode. In fact, the program is designed for automated, interactive use and the batch mode was added later -- the company sees the former as an especially pressing need under UNIX these days. The batch interface is still being refined, but the scheme currently available can handle all of the specific "matching" requirements you listed. It has an interactive front end, but the utility currently assumes a specific (public) X interface and won't run, yet, under any random windowing system. So, I think the IDS product would meet your requirements. For details, email to the company at the address above. An alternative is that you could actually develop a solution of your own using ISIS. This isn't as hard as it sounds, and if you browse through postings to this newsgroup from about one year ago, you will actually find a number of postings on the subject (called, I think, "roll your own supercomputer?"). The IDS product emerged from the architecture that was discussed in those postings, although since then a lot has been done to toughen it up and make the interfaces as flexible as possible. I should probably warn potential users that IDS is not actually shipping the general release of this product yet. Beta releases are available but the general release is not scheduled until early June of this year. The IDS product was not developed at Cornell and is proprietary to the company. -- Ken Birman -- Kenneth P. Birman E-mail: ken@cs.cornell.edu 4105 Upson Hall, Dept. of Computer Science TEL: 607 255-9199 (office) Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (USA) FAX: 607 255-4428