[Beowulf] Linux cluster for my college

[Jim Lux]

At 11:39 PM 4/7/2007, Sandip Dev wrote:
>    We are planning to set up a linux cluster on trail basis in our 
> college.Since its merely a trail,we have been alloted PIII PCs with 
> 128 MB Ram and 40 GB HD on a 100 MBps LAN.All i want to know 
> is,will this hardware support a cluster?

Yes.  I built a cluster with VIA 533 MHz motherboards (diskless) 
using an ancient P2 (or maybe it was a PPro) as the headnode, and 
wireless LAN as the interconnect.  Not exactly a ball-of-fire in the 
speed category (We could probably compete effectively for the 
"bottom500" list...) but fun to fool with, and worked for what I needed.

>Moreover which distro/software to begin with?

You might want to start with one of the "liveCD" styles of distros...

You might also want to do "net boot" if your P3s can do that (do they 
have PXE?).. it's a lot easier if you only have to make changes in 
one place, and then just reboot all the nodes.

>   If this trial succeeds we will get whatever hardware we want.But 
> I just want this trial to succeed.Please help me.

Define your "success criteria" carefully...


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