Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!limbo!taylor
From: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: BROKER (load balancing tool)
Keywords: distributed computing, process migration
Message-ID: <164@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Date: 30 Oct 89 18:01:40 GMT
References: <4156@cbnewsc.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor)
Distribution: na
Organization: Intuitive Systems, Mountain View, CA: +011 (415) 966-1151
Lines: 40

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!taylor