[Beowulf] where can i learn to build a cluster machine?

[Alpay Kasal]

Holy Cow... This message is a keeper. Thanks a million Robert.

Alpay Kasal

-----Original Message-----
From: beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org [mailto:beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org] On
Behalf Of Robert G. Brown
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2005 12:54 PM
To: Starship Warrior
Cc: beowulf at beowulf.org
Subject: Re: [Beowulf] where can i learn to build a cluster machine?

...snip...

To give you the direct answer, it goes something like the following:

  a) Hook systems into a common switched LAN e.g. an ethernet switch.
  b) If possible use decent quality PXE-aware NICs
  c) If possible use nodes with a decent amount of installed memory (>=
192 MB) although it is possible to get by with less, with effort.
  d) Node hard disk is optional for at least some installation methods
(e.g. warewulf) but is useful and enables others.
  e) At least one system NEEDS ample hard disk and will serve as a
"server" or "head node" to your cluster.  This node will manage boot
images, the distro you wish to install, NFS or other shared filesystems,
authentication, and gives you a place to "login to the cluster".  Note
that this is a sloppy requirement -- there are many different ways to
manage this and I'm just describing one of the simplest and most
straightforward ones.

...snip...

   rgb

-- 
Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu