[Beowulf] Re: Beowulf Digest, Vol 57, Issue 6

[Geoff Jacobs]

Alcides Simao wrote:
> Hello all!
> 
> I'm a beginner in beowulfing. I presently work in a lab where beowulfing
> is starting to be our way to make quantum-mechanical calculations of
> higher order - creepy, buzzing, wierd stuff.
> 
> Well, I have no experience paralelizing, nor how to make a cluster. So I
> figure I could start by an easy aproach : build a 2 pc cluster. Can you
> please help me? I'm a devoted member of The Church of Emacs, and of
> Saint iGNUtius.
> 
> Thanks 4 your time!
> 
> Best,
> 
> 'Newbie' Alcides

This is covered every couple of months, so searching back in the list
for keywords and phrases like "beginner" and "getting started" is a not
bad idea.

In summary, though, a Beowulf is a network of commodity computers
designed to perform operations cooperatively. Take pile o' pc's, install
a free operating system (historically Linux) on each, add the networking
stuff, start programming. Everything in addition is an engineering
consideration to solve or ameliorate issues as the cluster gets larger
and more sophisticated.

Check out these links:
http://www.clustermonkey.net//content/view/41/33/
http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/Beowulf/beowulf_book.php

-- 
Geoffrey D. Jacobs