[Beowulf] LAM: ANNOUNCE: CD to quickly create a LAM/MPI cluster

[Patrick Begou]

I've received this info tis morning (not tested yet). May be it could 
interest some people/beginers from this list for building quikly some 
experimental cluster.

Regards

Patrick

>> Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 13:14:43 +0200
>> From: Michael Creel <michael.creel at uab.es>
>> Reply-To: General LAM/MPI mailing list <lam at lam-mpi.org>
>> To: lam at lam-mpi.org
>> Subject: LAM: ANNOUNCE: CD to quickly create a LAM/MPI cluster
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I have done a re-master of the Knoppix Linux distribution that allows one to
>> create a working LAM/MPI enabled cluster in about 5-10 minutes, once the CD
>> is burnt. It does not affect the hard disks of the computers in any way, so
>> it can be used to get a cluster going on machines that are not specifically
>> dedicated to clustering. It doesn't matter what operating system they have
>> installed, but they must be of the x86 architecture. My own use of this is to
>> be able to quickly set up a Linux cluster at night in our university's
>> computer rooms on machines for students' use that have only Windows
>> installed.
>>
>> It is set up to work with from 2 to 50 nodes. At a minimum, you need 2
>> computers and a crossover cable. More desirable would be a set of networked
>> machines with PXE-enabled network cards.
>>
>> To use the CD with your own applications, you just copy them into
>> the /mnt/working directory, which is NFS shared by all nodes. Thus, this
>> provides an easy way to demonstrate your applications away from your own
>> cluster.
>>
>> Right now, the CD is at the beta stage. It works fine, at least for the few
>> configurations I have tried. The only example included is the hello.c program
>> from the LAM/MPI documentation.
>>
>> It is no more dangerous than the regular Knoppix CD, but please note that
>> (just as with regular Knoppix) booting this gives you root powers on any of
>> the machines in the cluster. So though the hard disks are not touched unless
>> you ask to do so, you do have that ability, so please be careful, especially
>> if you haven't ever used Knoppix.
>>
>> I am a LAM/MPI beginner, so I'm not going to be writing my own applications
>> soon. But I would like to include a few working examples on the CD once it's
>> out of the beta stage.
>>
>> You are invitated to contribute example applications that are somewhat "cool",
>> and that are understandable enough for people outside of your own discipline
>> to be able to get an idea of what is going on. Hopefully the examples would
>> illustrate the potential benefits of LAM/MPI clusters in a clear way that a
>> general audience can appreciate. If your application requires some package
>> that is not on the CD, I'll be happy to add it as long as it is in Debian
>> testing/unstable.
>>
>> To avoid license headaches, any contributed examples should be licensed GNU
>> GPL or similar. In particular, I will only include examples that provide
>> source code and allow redistribution and modification.
>>
>> The homepage is at http://pareto.uab.es/mcreel/Cluppix
>>
>> I'd appreciate feedback if you have problems or suggestions.
>>
>> Regards, Michael Creel
> 
> 

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