Re: Beowulf at SIUC?

[Sean /The RIMBoy/ <sean@rimboy.com>]

On Sun, 1 Oct 2000, Chester wrote:

> It brings up the interesting possibility of having clusters of
> computers at different locations, which could then be networked:
> A multi-bodied Beowulf!  I'll read up to see how this could be 
> feasible.

Here's what I can fill you in on.  

Beowulf is very network intensive.  Running it across a distributed net is
usually not done... at least I have not heard where people are running it
distributed.  The Los Alamos cluster used 4 port network cards and
have connected all the computers in some sort of "cube" configuration...
LJ has details on the specifics of the cube.  

If you are wanting to run distributed, I would suggest mosix:

www.mosix.org

Mosix is designed to be run distributed.  Furthermore, you do not have to
write your code to take advantage of the cluster, unlike beowulf.  The key
with mosix is to write your code multithreaded.

That being said, the science applications I tested were not multithreaded
(best I could tell at least) as processes did not migrate from one node to
the next.  Needless to say I was disappointed.  However, I did see stuff
migrate from computer to computer, which made me happy.

I would suggest digging up the Stone Souper Computer story about the
Beowulf out in Oak Ridge TN.  That is the one that has had the most press
for running on older stuff designated for the garbage.

In fact, the Nashville Linux User Group will probably be working on the
"Garlic Cluster" at se2600's Phreaknic Con.  The Garlic cluster is :

Garbage
Allocated
Resources
In a
Cluster

as these are all rescued 486's and the like.  Again, we'll be working on
it.  Now that I have some experience w/ the stuff, we should be able to
get it running fairly quick.

You can find out about Phreaknic (PN) by visiting:

www.phreaknic.org

It is the 1st weekend in November.  NLUG will have an installfest on the
Saturday.  

Sean...

Everything you know is wrong,
Just forget the words and sing along.    --Weird Al
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