CCL:Largest Linux Cluster? (fwd)

[alvin at Maggie.Linux-Consulting.com]

hi art

On Thu, 24 Jan 2002, Art Edwards wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 24, 2002 at 05:55:24PM +0100, Eugene Leitl wrote:

...

> > Can anyone tell me what is currently the largest linux-based workstation
> > cluster that has been successfully deployed and is being used for
> > computational chemistry studies?  (largest = number of nodes regardless of
> > the speed of each node).
> > 
> Sandia National Laboratories has C-Plant that runs Linux in addition to several
> layers of home-grown OS on several thousand nodes. The basic node is a DEC 
> ev6 with myranet (sp). They use no local disk, opting for a huge disk farm.

do you happen to know how they manage the huge disk farm???
	- resumably raid5 systems...
	- are each raid5 sub-system dual-hosted so that the other cpu
	can getto the data if one of the cpu cant get to it
	- does all nodes access the "disk farm" thru the gigabit ethernet
	or dual-hosted scsi cables ??
	- how does one optimize a disk farm ?? (hdparm seems too clumbsy)

-- in the old days.... 1980's ... there used to be dual-hosted
disk controllers where PC-HOST#1 and PC-HOST#2 can both access the same
physical CDC/DEC/Fujitsu drives
	- wish i could find these dual host scsi controllers for todaysPCs

have fun linuxing
alvin
http://www.Linux-1U.net .. 8x 200GB IDE disks -->> 1.6TeraByte 1U Raid5 ..