5.4 The ensemblePortvirtual

This release of the BETA distribution library uses TCP/IP for communication between distributed BETA processes. However, the only system port number "hardcoded" into the distribution library is the port number assigned to the ensemble shell, i.e. the ensembleDeamon process started using the BETALIB/bin/ startensemble.

By default, the ensemble uses the port number 5193. However, in order to allow several ensemble instances to run on the same host without conflicting, e.g. in order to allow different groups to run BETA distribution without sharing the ensemble, this may be changed in one of the following ways:

• Set the BETA_ENSEMBLE_PORT environment variable before starting the distributed program that should use an alternative ensemble port number. For example:

setenv BETA_ENSEMBLE_PORT 5211

• Notice that this should also be done before starting the ensembleDeamon to use the alternative port number.
• Remember that the ensemble.createShell.environment virtual may be used to set the environment of shells started using createShell.
• Alternatively, further bind the ensemblePort virtual. For example:

shellEnv (# ensemblePort:: (# do 5211->value #); ... #)