[Beowulf] Need Help...!

[Glen Gardner]

Muhamed;

In general, one uses a computer as a license server for all the other 
machines.  This might be on the development node of the cluster, or on a 
dedicated server.
This way you can have all of your licenses served from one machine.

As far as commecrcial software being expensive is concerned.... The 
basic idea behind Beowulf is to use readily available freeware to cut 
the operating costs.
For most Beowulf projects, using payware is a great luxury and most 
tools are developed from existing freeware resources. However,  using 
commecrially available compilers on an otherwise freeware Beowulf is 
becoming commonplace (but probably not as big an advantage as some would 
have you think).

If you already have the personnel resources it might prove cheaper to 
develop much of your own software from existing freeware tools  than to 
buy payware all along the way, and augment that with a few carefully 
chosen commercial compilers and maybe one or two carefully chosen 
commercial applications programming libraries. This approach is  
economical and effective, but will require some time from system admins 
and programmers to make it all go.

If you need to have something that is turnkey, prepackaged and ready to 
go all the way, then perhaps Beowulf is the wrong concept for your needs 
and you should consider a commercially built cluster or supercomputer 
with prepackaged software so your people can just login and go straight 
to work, with little or no development time.


Glen Gardner



Kamran Mustafa wrote:

>Hi,
> 
>I am working as an IT Manager at NED University of Engineering &
>Technology, Karachi, Pakistan, and currently managing a Linux based
>Cluster of 50 nodes. I just wanted to ask you that how to manage
>licensing issues on a beowulf cluster. Lets say, if you want to run an
>application software on 50 nodes then will you purchase 50 licenses of
>that software or if there is any other alternative to handle this
>licensing issue, because purchasing such a huge number of licences
>will definitely be very expensive. Actually, I also want to purchase
>different software for my 50 noded cluster but purchasing 50 licences
>of each software costs me alot, thats why I am in need of your
>guidance and kind suggestions.
> 
>Regards,
> 
>Muhammad Kamran Mustafa
>I.T. Manager
>Centre for Simulation & Modeling, 
>NED University of Engineering & Technology,
>Karachi, Pakistan.
>Tel: (9221) 9243261-8 ext 2372
>Fax: (9221) 9243248
>_______________________________________________
>Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org
>To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
>
>  
>

-- 
Glen E. Gardner, Jr.
AA8C
AMSAT MEMBER 10593



http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze24qhw/index.html