[Beowulf] portable clusters

[Jim Lux]

At 05:26 AM 11/30/2005, Jonathan J Smith wrote:
>Maybe I'm missing something here. But TFTP and DHCP from windows is a fairly
>simple task.

In theory, yes, but go try searching the MS Knowledgebase for useful 
information.  I'm sure it's there somewhere, but I haven't found it.  As 
rgb pointed out, MS tends to hide the mechanics of remote boot beneath a 
handy GUI.

It's also partly because the MS worldview puts functionality like this in 
the hands of a "server", so it's not clear that XP or XPPro, for instance, 
would have the functionality in a useful way.  The services/applications 
might exist, they might even run (XP and Win2000 and W2003 aren't all that 
different under the hood), but you might also need ten tons of other server 
management dreck that's all comingled, and not possible for a mere mortal 
to copy into the XP widget piecemeal.



>  If that is all you need to support booting diskless compute
>nodes then this should be a fairly trivial task.

Indeed.. and if you know where MS hides dhcpd and tftpd (or their 
functions), I'd love to know.


Actually, having poked a bit at the other end of the problem (the "windows 
only hardware interface") something else that comes up is Linux support for 
USB controlled printer ports and the like, but that's a whole 'nother can 
of worms.


>Is there something more involved than this?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Jonathan Smith

James Lux, P.E.
Spacecraft Radio Frequency Subsystems Group
Flight Communications Systems Section
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 161-213
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
tel: (818)354-2075
fax: (818)393-6875