[Beowulf] powering up 18 motherboards

[Mark Hahn]

> Another, much cheaper option, would be to set the slave
> node BIOS to use "Wake on LAN" (if it works on your systems)

I really, really like lan-IPMI.  not only do you get a nice way
to turn on/off/reset machines remotely, but you also can query
their internal sensors.  not to mention that it's an open standard.
my main experience with it is a cluster of HP DL145's, which are 
rebadged Celestica white-ish-box dual-opterons.  I've heard that 
lan-IPMI is also available for real whitebox (tyan, supermicro),
but have never managed to get hands on. 

IPMI-like functionality is one of those odd places where customers
are often hurt by vendors who produce proprietary, less-interoperable
mechanisms.  sort of embrace-extend-bastardize-rebrand.  product teams
should not listen to marketing/business people...