HG wrote:
[...] We would like to build a cluster of multiple Opteron based computers. The usage is for scientific computing (multiple scientists running large processes usually at the same time... :-) Mainly computing but also some large flat file access, no DB stuff. [...] How? Can't find anything really about getting any SUSE version or 2.6 kernel for that matter to work in cluster. Anybody have any experience? Any pointers to resources? Opensourse? Commercial? Whatever?
Building a proper cluster and cluster environment is not as easy as it might sound and involves a bit more than just buying some PC boxes and network cables, but I am sure you're aware of this problem ;-) First of all, I think you need to exactly identify the purpose of your cluster.
From your description, it sounds like you're going to build a compute cluster for mainly CPU-bound processes. Think about the size of your cluster, the RAM per cluster node (which depends on the type of applications and, of course, your budget), and the connection between cluster nodes. Think about the local disk storage per cluster node you might require, the remote disk storage, and so on. And don't forget the cooling solution and power supply...
I would recommend buying a properly configured cluster solution with some decent cluster management software. Building a big cluster on your own is a tedious task. If it's a small cluster, it might be much easier. Well, all of this somehow depends on your budget. You also need a good queuing system which allows to assign different properties to cluster nodes (OSS solutions available). There are also pretty good cluster monitors around (e.g. http://ganglia.sourceforge.net). We're using several HPC clusters with thousands of CPUs, all running Linux OS, Kernel 2.4 or 2.6 (I must admit it's RHE not SuSE but this should not really matter in this context). Sorry, I can't give any more information in public. Cheers, Th. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org