Distribution

[Donald Becker]

On Fri, 8 Dec 2000, Sam H wrote:

> Hi.  I'm doing a plan-out for a Beowulf cluster with the following specs:
> 256 (possibly 512) Alpha-Processor Inc. CS20 Nodes with dual 833mhz
>   Processors with 4mb DDR L2 cache each, 512 meg SDRAM
> GigaNet VI Lan Interconnection
> Raritan Paragon KVM Switch for all nodes
> 1-4 CS20 Head-ends with 2gb SDRAM and two GigaNet adapters
> 
> Are there any recommendations on what Linux distribution I should use
> here?  How much storage space I should have on a RAID server? 

The CS20 nodes are very impressive.  They mostly remove the density
objection to clusters.  Instead the issue becomes supplying the power and
removing the heat, just as with traditional supercomputers.

The critical support issue here is the GigaNet interconnect.
I don't think that you will find a distribution that supports it out of the
box.

We've demoed the Scyld distribution on CS20 nodes (albeit without automatic
installation of the boot scheme), and adding Myrinet to the distribution was
only a few weeks of integration and initial testing.  But we had prior
experience with Myrinet.  GigaNet support is not on the short-term schedule
and we don't know how difficult that it will be.  But with funding I'm
certain that we could work something out.


Donald Becker				becker at scyld.com
Scyld Computing Corporation		http://www.scyld.com
410 Severn Ave. Suite 210		Second Generation Beowulf Clusters
Annapolis MD 21403			410-990-9993