I need good definitive information on building a PC cluster.

[SilverBack]

I have absolutely no experience in clusters.
My goal is to learn, plan and develop my own for home use (distributed computing).
I need the basics 1st.
Someone show me the light.

 

[AbsolutDealage]

You might have a better audience in the Distributed Computing forum.

 

[SilverBack]

Uh Building a cluster would be I think "HIGHLY TECNICAL"
:brokenheart:

 

[Shalmanese]

Nope, not HT at all, sorry. Its all pretty old hat nowadays. Unless you want to build a special kind of cluster that hasn't been done before.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Shalmanese
Nope, not HT at all, sorry. Its all pretty old hat nowadays. Unless you want to build a special kind of cluster that hasn't been done before.

Agree ... for run-of-the-mill clusters it goes something like this...

1. Load Linux on a bunch of boxes
2. Plug them into a switch
3. Configure network
4. Install software (PVM, MPI, Various monitoring & scheduling apps.)

The fun bit is getting them to do something useful.

 

[capybara]

you can get the beowulf clustering cd for about $1 at cheapbytes
but imho, its not all that easy. i was in a linux clustering class and the teacher
failed in getting the cluster to function as desired.

 

[drag]

[L=you can goto the beowolf howto]www.beowulf-underground.org/doc_project/HOWTO/english/Beowulf-HOWTO.html[/L

 

[dkozloski]

About a year or so ago there was an article in Scientific American on clustering with the aim of building a super computer. The networking was very tricky to properly load share the whole contraption. If you could track down the original article it would be worth your while.

 

[capybara]

linkified

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: capybara
you can get the beowulf clustering cd for about $1 at cheapbytes
but imho, its not all that easy. i was in a linux clustering class and the teacher
failed in getting the cluster to function as desired.

What aspect of it could they not get working?

 

[capybara]

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: capybara
you can get the beowulf clustering cd for about $1 at cheapbytes
but imho, its not all that easy. i was in a linux clustering class and the teacher
failed in getting the cluster to function as desired.

What aspect of it could they not get working?

wont run faster than a non-clustered setup.
timings wouldnt sync = as i remember it from 2 years ago
this cluster was built (2 years ago) on redhat 6.2

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: capybara

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: capybara
you can get the beowulf clustering cd for about $1 at cheapbytes
but imho, its not all that easy. i was in a linux clustering class and the teacher
failed in getting the cluster to function as desired.

What aspect of it could they not get working?

wont run faster than a non-clustered setup.
timings wouldnt sync = as i remember it from 2 years ago
this cluster was built (2 years ago) on redhat 6.2

hmmm tough to say on the basis of what you've given. "won't run faster then a non cluster setup" Do you recall what application you were trying? POVray maybe?
NTP can be a little tricky to set up, but synchronized time isn't required for most distributed algorithms. I know I never rely on it.
Sounds to me like your teach was lacking in clue, but I guess that's your point, that setting up a cluster ins not for those without clue

shrug ... maybe I'm to close to it now to understand how hard it might be for a newbie.

 

[Armitage]

Oh yea ... beowulf gloat
My proposal just got approved yesterday ... 20 nodes of 2.6GHz Xeon, 2GB ram on board, 4GB ram and ~70GB RAID5 SCSI on the server.