lbnamed: A Load Balancing Name Server in Perl

Given a cluster of workstations, users have always wanted a way to login to the least-loaded workstation. This paper discusses an attempt to solve that problem using a load balancing name server. This name server also has the ability to serve other dynamic information as well, such as /etc/passwd information (a la Hesiod [2]). The prototype was written in Perl 4 [1], and recently converted to Perl 5. This paper describes the Perl 4 version first and then describes some of the interesting features in the Perl 5 version. This paper assumes the reader has a basic understanding of Perl, DNS, and BIND [3].