[Beowulf] distributing storage amongst compute nodes

[Jeffrey B. Layton]

Leif Nixon wrote:
> "Jeffrey B. Layton" <laytonjb at charter.net> writes:
>
>   
>> Leif Nixon wrote:
>>     
>>> Mark Hahn <hahn at mcmaster.ca> writes:
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>>>> [...] commodity disks are plenty reliable
>>>> and are not a significant source of uptime problems.
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> That's not quite a general truth. 8^)
>>>
>>>       
>> Even though the data shows otherwise?
>>     
>
> OK, let me rephrase: That's just true in general, and it's the
> specific cases that bite you.
>   

I wouldn't even say that. Even though Garth's data shows that
SATA drives are actually a bit better than SCSI and FC drives,
I have a tendency to say that they are all equal. That can be equally
good or equally as bad depending upon on your viewpoint :)

> On *average* disks might not be a large source of problems, but when
> you run into a bad batch it hurts. But that's true for all components,
> of course.
>   

Yep - totally agree. It's true for all makes and models.

> My take on this might be a bit coloured from spending some time the
> other day in the company of a representative sample of disks from a
> certain bad batch, a crowbar, a sledgehammer and several pounds of
> thermite. (Sorry, rgb, no sucker rod available around here.
>   

I haven't had too much problem with drives in general. However, I've
run across batches of memory that sent me through the roof!!! Fans
as well.

Enjoy!

Jeff