Experienced newbee - recomendations for kernel, diskless config and other Q's?

[d.bussenschutt at mailbox.gu.edu.au]

A few questions from an experienced sys-admin that is a "beowulf 
newbee"...

If I use Redhat, what version had best support for Beowulf? The older 
version have been around the longest, so we know they "work", but does 
2.2.19 (redhat 7.0) or the 2.4.x (redhat 7.1) kernel give better 
out-of-the-box support? (I'll still have to compile the kernel, but that's 
no big deal)

I have heaps of diskless clients and want to know what free software give 
me the easiest route to getting these on line.  I'm currently assuming the 
following is the best for my environment:
3-com boot-roms emulate floppy (with Etherboot package?), fake floppy(ie 
ROM) supports NFS root FS and rarp for getting IP info , NFS and rarp 
server are the same, so no bootloader req'd.  Anyone got any suggestions 
that might make this better? (like putting root FS in ROM?) All 
suggestions welcome....

Regarding the Beowulf HOWTO, is these un updated version that deals with 
2.2.19 or 2.4.x kernels as it appears that the kernel options have changed 
a bit since the HOWTO was written?


David.

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