[Beowulf] Cluster Networking

[Mark Hahn]

>> 1. Is there any influence on performance of a NFS-server from the
> usage
>> of x32 CPU and OS instead of x64, if all other characteristics of the

64bitness is, at this level, purely a matter of register width, number and
address-space size.  it might very well be that an NFS server would show 
an advantage to 64b if configured with a very large pagecache and a read
friendly workload.

>> system, i.e. amount of RAM, soft-SATA-II RAID 0, Realtek GLAN NIC are
>> the same?
>
> I would say no - but I don't run any 32 bit machines as NFS servers!

I can't think of any reason to prefer 64b for NFS servers, except that 
32b-only machines tend to be older (and thus limited in memory and IO 
bandwidth).

> Being even more honest, I would look at this Realtek NIC and consider
> putting in
> An Intel E1000 based card. Also look closely at network tuning

I'd be pretty surprised if any Gb nic couldn't manage wire speed.