[Beowulf] GPFS on Linux (x86)

[Gil Bloch]

Scott Atchley wrote:
> On Sep 11, 2006, at 10:14 PM, Brent Franks wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> We have been researching GPFS from IBM and are very interested in what
>> looks like promising performance and scalability.
>>
>> Does anyone use GPFS, we are looking at running it in a distributed
>> mode, rather than using one central SAN.
>>
>> Additionally, the sales information seems to be rather elusive.  We
>> have contacted IBM, however the channels we contact have all been
>> somewhat dissapointing as we have had to educate the sales people on
>> what the product is.
>>
>> We are very interested in setting up a trial of the software and then
>> purchasing if it meets our needs.  Does anyone have a contact at IBM
>> or solutions provider who is familiar with GPFS and could send out an
>> eval kit?  30 or 60 day time bomb would be fine, we just need to
>> justify to management that it will indeed work for our application.
>>
>> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks and kindest regards,
>>
>> - Brent
>
> Hi Brent,
>
> You do not mention what interconnect (protocol or advertised 
> throughput) that you are considering. If you are considering gigabit 
> Ethernet, you can skip the rest of this message.
>
> If, however, you are considering something faster than gigabit 
> Ethernet, bear in mind that GPFS only can use TCP (as far as I know). 
> You will be limited to the performance of the TCP on your 
> interconnect. If you are using TCP/IP/Ethernet, then expect a very 
> high CPU load. If you are considering an IB solution, look closely at 
> their IPoIB results.
Luster File System (open source from CFS) support native InfiniBand, 
delivering higher performance with low CPU utilization.

Gil Bloch
Mellanox Technologies
>
> Some filesystems can take advantage of the underlying (non-Ethernet) 
> fabric to achieve higher throughput and lower CPU usage.
>
> Scott
>
> -- 
> Scott Atchley
> Myricom Inc.
> http://www.myri.com
>
>
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