Cluster Hardware thread

[PCTC2]

I'm still down too and I have generally enough time for managing and writing scripts and stuff for the cluster.

Another thing we need is a router and some switches!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Microcenter has 5-port 10/100 switches from TrendNet for $10 right now.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Bump, for some more team hardware action!

 

[Insidious]

If this thing gets to a place it is actually ready to move some electrons, I have a 5 port switch I'll be happy to send to a new home.

-Sid

 

[PCTC2]

With the economy, the way it is, I can't afford to host the cluster unless there's a steady stream of money to help pay for electricity (my computers pretty much max my electricity budget).

But I'm willing to donate all the hardware I can find. I really want to see this rolling. If it's close to me geographically, I'm willing to help set up and possibly write some management scripts or something. I prolly have a good amount of random hardware around.

 

[VirtualLarry]

There is the remote possibility that I might be able to host a small number of machines. My mom doesn't pay for electric (included in rent), so she said she would be willing to let me set up some crunchers there. She has a DSL line.

I know nothing about writing "management scripts". I was envisioning some sort of remote VNC arrangement, except "read only" (I don't know if VNC can do that). That way, people over the internet could monitor the crunchers, but not interact with them directly.

If anyone thinks that this would be feasable, let me know. I could provide the networking gear for the cluster, I've got switches, I could link them wirelessly to the DSL line.

 

[PCTC2]

I would say put 64-bit linux on all of them. You might be able to disable control on VNC, but with management scripts, you can have parts of logs dumped and parsed into an HTML page which can be viewed by anyone. The site could be hosted on one of the machines and use DynDNS for a registration (it's free).

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I took a look at VNC, and it looks like you can disable the inputs on the viewers, so that would work. I thought that DynDNS had a monthly fee for using it? I don't really know Linux well at all, and given the class of hardware likely to be donated, I highly doubt that they will run 64-bit OSes. Verizon blocks port 80 inbound too.

 

[PCTC2]

DynDNS is free for hostnames (up to 5 I believe).

32-bit Linux works too. I was stuck on F@H for sec there. F@H only allows SMP on 64-bit processors, which most multi-core processors are 64-bit anyways.

Verizon blocks hosted port 80's? you sure? if so, check if they block 443, and if they do, Port 8080 can also be used.

Scripts can also be written for Windows. I hate writing Perl scripts but they can be done.