cluster suggestion

[C. J. K. Tan]

I am planning to install a cluster with the following hardware:

10 Y nodes of:
- P-III 750 MHz
- 10GB HDD

2 X nodes of:
- P-III 750 MHz
- 36GB HDD

What I would like to have is:
- users telnet in to any one of the 2 X nodes
- if one of the X nodes goes down, the other automatically takes over
  (termination of processes running on the X node before going down,
  eg: editors, is OK)
- ideally, network RAID that would allow for file system with
  device physically on different nodes, eg:
  /home being made up of the HDD on nodes X_1, X_2, X_3, X_4, X_5.
- network RAID with 5 of the Y nodes and 1 of the X node mirror the
  disks of the other 5 Y nodes and 1 X node, eg:
  X_1 mirrors disk on X_6, X_2 mirrors disk on X_7, etc.

Can this be done?  How can I achieve this?

The machines will be running Linux (SuSE).  The machines are connected
via a 100Mbps switch.

Is this scheme actully advisable if the machines will be used to run
MPI jobs?

Thanks!


Kenneth Tan