Queue is an innovative load-balancing and batch-processing environment that, along with more traditional features of such systems, uses an innovative 'stub' proxy daemon on the local end to allow intuitive control of a remote executing job using local job control. For example, a user can suspend and resume a remote CPU-intensive interactive job (e.g., Matlab or an EMACS front end for Allegro Lisp) as if it were a local job. The user's local environment (not just environmental variables, but terminal settings, resource limits, and nice values) is almost completely replicated on the remote end The source code for Queue has been GPL'd and has been ported to GNU/Linux, HP-UX, and Solaris; Richard Stallman and I hope that Queue will soon become part of the GNU suite of applications. Currently, Queue supports only NFS cross-mounted clusters. However, I believe that AFS + Queue could be a truly exciting technology. In local clusters, support for AFS would add significantly to security as it would be necessary for a user to obtain an AFS token (via a password) before being allowed to execute jobs on a remote host; root access on one host would not (directly) allow any privileges on another host despite the installation of Queue. More exciting is the use of Queue + AFS to allow remote job control and execution across the Internet on machines not part of the same cluster nor under common administration. By passing the user's AFS token to a distant host, that host would gain access to the user's filespace, allowing a user to execute a CPU-intensive task on a remote host just as if it were local via Queue. In this way, the entire Internet could be turned into a giantic yet easy-to-use virtual machine even for programs and operating systems not originally written to be used in this manner. The majority of UNIX programs in use today fall into this category. We are looking for AFS-savvy testers and programmers to help us test and develop Queue in the AFS environment. If you are interested, subscribe to the "queue-tips" Queue development list by writing to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]". If you are merely interested in the Queue system, you may download source code and documentation from http://bioinfo.mbb.yale.edu/~wkrebs/queue.html , which is the Queue system homepage.
