[Beowulf] distributions

[Greg M. Kurtzer]

On Thu, Jan 26, 2006 at 04:09:58PM -0700, Warren Turkal wrote:
> Is it ok to mix linux distributions when building a cluster? I am wondering 
> for migration purposes. For instance, it the current cluster had FC2 and I 
> wanted to move to FC3, would it be okay to install new nodes as FC3 and 
> gradually migrate?

One of the design goals of Fedora is to NOT be a production capable OS.
This is done by limiting its life to only 6 months with no guaranteed
smooth update path (among several other things). With that said....

   Why maintain this OS on a cluster or any system for that matter that
   requires stability?

You are not the only person doing this by far, yet it is something that
I just never understood. I would love to hear some reasoning as to why
people use Fedora in production where there are so many other distros
that are actually designed for production use (and are free).

Thanks. :)
-- 
Greg Kurtzer
Berkeley Lab, Linux guy