two NICs - channel bonding - tradeoff

[Curt Timmerman]

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I took the easy way out. I have 2 NIC cards per node and dedicate
cluster messaging (PVM) to one card and everything else to the other
card. I have no benchmarks the the activity lights indicate a pretty
good load balance. Again - depends on your application.


"Walter B. Ligon III" wrote:
> 
> --------
> Now THIS is a really good question.  The answer is: no one can answer that
> for you.  Someone should explore that idea to see.
> 
> Generally I think there are a number of interesting issues in using multiple
> networks.  We have experimented with using one bus and one switched network
> (back when switches were still pricey).
> 
> As you have correctly pointed out it will depend a lot on your application.
> First off you need to find such an application.  Then do some experimenting
> to see how best to use the network resources.
> 
> Of course, an alternative to using a dedicated network would be to modify
> the networking code in the kernel to provide priority access to your special
> traffic - of course getting switches to do that would be much more difficult.
> This would make a great project for an MS student - mucking around in the
> kernel to implement this.  I wonder if anyone know if the "out of band"
> feature of TCP/IP (or is it UDP/IP?) actually gives priority to packets
> at the network device queue, or if it simply provides a seperate buffer for
> the socket?  One idea would be for the kernel to automatically route "out
> of band" data via a different device.
> 
> Anyway, lots of issues to explore.  Please do, and then let us know what you
> find.
> 
> Walt
> 
> > Assuming one has two 100MB NICs per node, is it
...
> >
> > Do I gain something with running two separate
> > communication channels? Or do I fool myself?
> >
> > Chris....
> 
> --
> Dr. Walter B. Ligon III
> Associate Professor
> ECE Department
> Clemson University

-- 
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Curt Timmerman
PO Box 520153
Big Lake, Alaska 99652
(907)892-7460
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