Clustering suggestions needed

Jushi · 2006-04-24, 21:46

At our university (Ghent), we were running an openMosix cluster with Gentoo Linux. Our hardware setup is one dedicated server + 33 diskless slave nodes, each node has 1 PentiumIV 3.0GHz CPU and 2GB of RAM.

Unfortunately, about two weeks ago our server motherboard failed, and we decided to buy a brand new server. This turned out to be a big mistake, since the openMosix kernel no longer runs on it. openMosix has always been very slow in development, their latest stable release dates from december 2004. On paper openMosix is absolutely great, but in practice it has many problems

. (Gentoo has an unofficial 2.4.30 openMosix kernel, but it runs very unstable)

So, we are slowly thinking about installing a different clustering system. That's why I'm asking if any of you has good suggestions, or positive personal experiences. One of the great things (op paper) of openMosix is that it is very easy to do interactive "ad hoc" computations, i.e. I can just log in, start a program and I (as a user) will never even notice that it runs on a different node. We've also used this in computeralgebra courses, where we let students log in onto the cluster to run their programs. openMosix also allows for easy administration, our nodes mount everything read only. If there exists software with similar features, I would really like to know it.

I'll be very, very grateful to anyone who can help me on this, as we currently have 34 computers just collecting dust

Wacky · 2006-04-24, 22:02

Quote:

as we currently have 34 computers just collecting dust

and thus, not sieving relations for our NFSNet factoring efforts. :(

Your contribution is sorely missed. I hope that you will soon be able to resolve your difficulties and return those computers to useful service.

Jushi · 2006-05-02, 16:11

We actually managed to get our cluster running again, by installing MOSIX (op opposed to openMosix). I would have preferred "open" software (MOSIX is technically GPL, but morally it's not open), but then again, I prefer a working cluster over a non-working cluster.

ValerieVonck · 2006-05-12, 11:43

Hi!

May throw in a little suggestion?
Why do you not use FreeBSD as main OS?
And use the MPI Api interface?
I never used this but did (a lot of) research on this topic a year ago....
If you want something opensource, I suggest you search for Overclockix (knoppix variant) with let you boot of a cd over NetBoot or WakeupOnlan.
This I tried @ home. It has a XServer built in....

Regards
Cedric

2006-04-24, 21:46	#1
Jushi Sep 2005 UGent 2²·3·5 Posts	Clustering suggestions needed At our university (Ghent), we were running an openMosix cluster with Gentoo Linux. Our hardware setup is one dedicated server + 33 diskless slave nodes, each node has 1 PentiumIV 3.0GHz CPU and 2GB of RAM. Unfortunately, about two weeks ago our server motherboard failed, and we decided to buy a brand new server. This turned out to be a big mistake, since the openMosix kernel no longer runs on it. openMosix has always been very slow in development, their latest stable release dates from december 2004. On paper openMosix is absolutely great, but in practice it has many problems . (Gentoo has an unofficial 2.4.30 openMosix kernel, but it runs very unstable) So, we are slowly thinking about installing a different clustering system. That's why I'm asking if any of you has good suggestions, or positive personal experiences. One of the great things (op paper) of openMosix is that it is very easy to do interactive "ad hoc" computations, i.e. I can just log in, start a program and I (as a user) will never even notice that it runs on a different node. We've also used this in computeralgebra courses, where we let students log in onto the cluster to run their programs. openMosix also allows for easy administration, our nodes mount everything read only. If there exists software with similar features, I would really like to know it. I'll be very, very grateful to anyone who can help me on this, as we currently have 34 computers just collecting dust

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2006-05-02, 16:11	#3
Jushi Sep 2005 UGent 2²×3×5 Posts	We actually managed to get our cluster running again, by installing MOSIX (op opposed to openMosix). I would have preferred "open" software (MOSIX is technically GPL, but morally it's not open), but then again, I prefer a working cluster over a non-working cluster.

2006-05-12, 11:43	#4
ValerieVonck Mar 2004 Belgium 349₁₆ Posts	Hi! May throw in a little suggestion? Why do you not use FreeBSD as main OS? And use the MPI Api interface? I never used this but did (a lot of) research on this topic a year ago.... If you want something opensource, I suggest you search for Overclockix (knoppix variant) with let you boot of a cd over NetBoot or WakeupOnlan. This I tried @ home. It has a XServer built in.... Regards Cedric