Xref: utzoo comp.dcom.lans:6959 comp.protocols.tcp-ip:14449
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!VAX1.CC.UAKRON.EDU!mcs.kent.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!eagle!news
From: xxseub@osprey.lerc.nasa.gov (Steven Eubanks)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans,comp.protocols.tcp-ip,comp.protocol.tcp-ip.domains
Subject: REPOST: Telnet rotors/connection distribution??
Keywords: Telnet, rotor, distribution, load balancing
Message-ID: <1991Jan14.224840.14862@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov>
Date: 14 Jan 91 22:48:40 GMT
Sender: news@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov (News Admin)
Reply-To: xxseub@osprey.lerc.nasa.gov (Steven Eubanks)
Organization: NASA/Lewis Research Center, Cleveland
Lines: 44

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.