Subject: the use of registration priority

From: Mike Daniele <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 03 Aug 98 14:16:39 -0400

Hi,

Discussions after the recent bakeoff led to the question
of what provisions there are in AgentX for a subagent to determine
what index to use in registering instances.

The provisions are 

a) index allocation provides a hint
b) if a subagent gets a duplicateRegistration error it
   knows to try a different index

It was pointed out that b) only happens if 2 subagents register the
same region with the same value for priority.

6.2.3 says

>      r.priority

>         A value between 1 and 255, used to achieve a desired
>         configuration when different subagents register identical or
>         overlapping regions.  Subagents with no particular knowledge of
>         priority should register with the default value of 255 (lowest
>         priority).

It seems like a good idea to beef up this text, to make clear that 
using 255 is necessary for the master to detect duplicateRegistration
(in general).

something like this?

         A value between 1 and 255, used to achieve a desired
         configuration when different subagents register identical or
         overlapping regions.  

         In the master agent's dispatching algorithm, smaller values of
         r.priority take precedence over larger values, as described in
         section 7.1.5.1.

	 Subagents with no particular knowledge of priority should 
	 register with the default value of 255 (lowest priority).
	 This convention permits the master agent to detect duplicate
	 registrations and return that error to subagents, who may then
	 take appropriate action (as describe in section 7.1.3).

	 Using non-default values for priority is typically done by
	 human administrators who wish to tailor a specific configuration.
 
(7.1.3 could use a little expansion around this point too.)

Mike