[Beowulf] Linux cluster for my college

[Robert G. Brown]

On Sun, 8 Apr 2007, Sandip Dev wrote:

>  We are planning to set up a linux cluster on trail basis in our
> college.Since its merely a trail,we have been alloted PIII PCs with 128 MB
> Ram and 40 GB HD on a 100 MBps LAN.All i want to know is,will this hardware
> support a cluster? Moreover which distro/software to begin with?  If this
> trial succeeds we will get whatever hardware we want.But I just want this
> trial to succeed.Please help me.

This is a FAQ -- search the list archives and you will find it answered
and discussed numerous times.

In the meantime, the short answer is:

   a) Yes, you can make a perfectly lovely cluster out of this.
   b) Using any linux distro -- certainly any of the mainstream ones: FC,
Debian, Ubuntu, SuSE/Novell, RHEL.
   c) The simplest way to start is "likely" to be using a cluster support
package, e.g. OSCAR, warewulf, and/or a cluster-oriented distribution
e.g. scientific linux.  However, you can make a perfectly gangbusters
cluster using FC-whatever kickstart installed to the nodes, or a Debian
cluster, or a....  as long as the distribution installs on the nodes
(ideally in a fully automated, PXE/DHCP-driven way) and the distribution
provides PVM and MPI in one or more flavors, install linux, the
compilers, and PVM/MPI and presto chango, your pile of PCs is an instant
cluster.

     rgb

>
> Regards,
> Sandip Dev,
> Student,SVNIT,
> (www.svnit.ac.in)
>

-- 
Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu