We interupt the normal NANOG threads for this potentially interesting item. % ------------------------- % % Hi, % % We at the Center for Networking and Distributed Systems at Johns Hopkins % University % (http://www.cnds.jhu.edu) are happy to announce the release of Wackamole, % a software tool that provides N-Way Fail Over for IP Addresses in a cluster. % It is available here: http://www.backhand.org/wackamole/ and is released % under the CNDS open source license % http://www.backhand.org/wackamole/LICENSE.shtml % which is essentially a version of BSD license with a somewhat stronger % advertising % requirement. % % Wackamole is a tool that helps with making a cluster highly available. % It manages a bunch of virtual IPs that should be available to the outside % world at all times. Wackamole ensures that exactly one machine within the % cluster is % listening on each virtual IP address that Wackamole manages. % If it discovers that particular machines within the cluster are not alive, % it will % almost immediately ensure that other machines acquire the virtual IP % addresses the % down machines were managing. At no time will more than one connected machine % be % responsible for any virtual IP. % % Wackamole also works toward achieving a balanced distribution of the public % IPs % within the cluster it manages. % % How it works: % Wackamole runs as root on each of the cluster's machines. It uses the % membership % notifications provided by the Spread Toolkit (http://www.spread.org, also % available % under a similar license) to generate a consistent state that is agreed upon % among % all of the connected Wackamole instances. % Wackamole uses this knowledge to ensure that all of the public IP addresses % served % by the cluster will be covered by exactly one Wackamole instance. % % Wackamole is the newest component in the Backhand project % (http://www.backhand.org), % adding to its predecessors mod_backhand and mod_log_spread. % % For questions or comments - e-mail wackamole@backhand.org % % Best regards, % % :) Yair. http://www.cnds.jhu.edu -- --bill