Subject: Re: CCL:Linux Cluster

From: Kenneth Geisshirt <kneth)at(silex.dk>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 09:41:41 +0100

? Meana ? wrote:

 > We want to obtain information about building cluster of Linux. Where 
can we  obtain it?

First take a look at:
http://www.beowulf.org
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Beowulf-HOWTO.html
http://oscar.sourceforge.net

A number of companies build clusters (e.g., the one I work for), and you 
can buy cluster distributions like MandrakeSoft's Clustering product. 
Finally, you can build a cluster by hand (ok if the number of nodes is 
less than 6).

Kneth
-- 
Kenneth Geisshirt <kneth)at(silex.dk> - Principal Scientist
Silex Science ApS, Trekronergade 126F, 4. sal, DK-2500 Valby, Denmark
Phone: +45 4058 2178 - Fax: +45 3644 3539 - Web: www.silex.dk

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From: Rick Venable <rvenable)at(pollux.cber.nih.gov>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 18:07:01 -0500

Another cluster setup option which I've used is the FAI package, with a
homepage at URL

	http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/

It is based on the Debian/GNU Linux distribution, which I was already
using at my site.  It's a more standardized, documented, and supported
version of the sort of approach used to build "hand-made" clusters, by
installing the OS and software packages in an automated way on a group
of identical machines.

I agree with Igor that you have to consider the applications, or at
least their parallel potential and characteristics.  Programs which
require a lot of interprocess communication for parallel usage (such as
most MD codes) may not scale very well when using ethernet to connect
the hosts, esp. with the 2+ GHz speeds of current CPU chips.

Several clusters here at NIH, including Biowulf, use Myrinet to connect
cluster hosts, which gives greatly improved parallel scaling compared to
ethernet.  Myrinet is a bit expensive, but does work fairly well, via a
modified MPICH library.

As for job management, the PBS queueing system seems to be a fairly good
option, and is available in 2 versions (one commercial, PBSpro).

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Rick Venable           29/500
FDA/CBER/OVRR Biophysics Lab
1401 Rockville Pike    HFM-419
Rockville, MD  20852-1448  U.S.A.
(301) 496-1905   Rick_Venable)at(nih.gov
ALT email:  rvenable)at(speakeasy.org
-------------------------------------
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kang."
                         Homer
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> > ? Meana ? wrote:
> > > We want to obtain information about building cluster of Linux.
> > > Where can we  obtain it?

> On Thu, 30 Oct 2003, Kenneth Geisshirt wrote:
> > First take a look at:
> > http://www.beowulf.org
> > A number of companies build clusters (e.g., the one I work for), and
> > you can buy cluster distributions like MandrakeSoft's Clustering
> > product. Finally, you can build a cluster by hand (ok if the number
> > of nodes is less than 6).

On Thu, 30 Oct 2003, Igor Filippov wrote:
> We have a hand-made cluster of 48 nodes. Why is the 6 node limit ???
> Then there's biowulf - http://biowulf.nih.gov that has 500+ nodes,
> AFAIK at least a portion of it are not "made-ready" cluster boxes.
>
> As a side note, it's not clear what is it that Meana is asking about
> since IMHO the architecture of the cluster - hardware, network
> topology, software, configuration would seem to need to be determined
> from the proposed usage of the future cluster, and the original email
> neglected to mention anything about it.