ExtremeNetworks Summit and channel bonding with Scyld

[Chris Black]

On Wed, Nov 07, 2001 at 04:11:31PM +0100, Javier Iglesias wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> We are about to build a 19 bi-athlon/Tyan Tiger/Scyld cluster 
> for academic research in the field of genetic programming, and 
> large neural networks.
> 
> We'd like to use an Extreme Networks Summit 48 ethernet switch 
> -> http://www.extremenetworks.com/products/datasheets/summit24.asp
> connecting (highly recommended here recently :) Netgear FA310TX NICs 
> -> http://www.netgear.com/product_view.asp?xrp=1&yrp=1&zrp=4 
> 
> Here come the questions :
> * has anyone experienced channel bonding on that switch ?
> * any Gigabit NIC recommandation for the master node ?
> * is it possible/necessary to channel bond Gigabit interfaces ?
> 
> Thanks in advance for your help !!

I have no experience with that switch, but have a few comments...
For gigabit NICs for linux, we have had good experience with the 
NetGear GA620 cards (not the GA622s which are a different chipset). 
They are well supported by the acenic driver and function well for us.

As for channel bonding, I really don't think you'll need it for 
genetic programming and neural networks as those aren't traditionally 
very-high-bandwidth applications if I am thinking about them correctly.
(That is if by genetic programming you mean genetic algorithms and not 
bioinformatics).
Not to mention the added complexity and time needed to implemenet channel 
bonding, I just don't think it would be worth it in this case.
It seems to me that many cluster workloads work fine with just fast 
ethernet to the nodes.

Chris












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