[Beowulf] best linux distribution

[Jakob Oestergaard]

On Mon, Oct 08, 2007 at 05:21:08PM +0430, Seyed Abouzar Najafi Shoshtari wrote:
> Dear beowulf experts,
> 
> we are planning to build a beowulf cluster
> with 8 nodes (8xCPUs, Intel 6600 Quadcore 8MB, 8GB RAM )and 
> a Dell-Server as the master node (2xCPU Xeon Quad Core 1.6GHz, 4TB Hard, 18GB
> RAM).
> 
> Which linux distribution would be ideal for our case?

Which is best - a cup of tea or a fighter jet?

I guess it depends on what you need most.

All reasonably modern distributions will support the hardware just fine.

What you need to find out, is;
1) What software will you run, and which distributions support the software (or,
   which distributions are supported by the software)
2) How can you get support - various vendors or non-vedors give you different
   options depending on your needs
3) How do you get security updates in a timely fashion? Is this an issue at all?
4) What about non-security upgrades? Do you need a very stable platform, or would
   you prefer something that upgrades libraries and tools more frequently?

In other words; find out what you need - then pick what you need.

-- 

 / jakob