Warren Turkal wrote:
Does a layer 3 switch make sense on a Beowulf cluster running on GigE? If so, does anyone have any recommendations?

We use several brands of switches, HP, 3Com and Nortel.

We have recently put in some larger clusters using Nortel 5510 switches,
which are stackable 48 port switches. You can get longer stacking cables, so you can put one switch (*) per rack and extend the stacks horizontally, ie. cat 5 stays within a rack, or maybe two.

These are layer 3 switches, but we don't use the layer 3 functionality.

I'm sure others will disagree, but I would say layer 3 functionality is not needed.


(*) Well, not really one switch. One switch for admin and Panasas storage traffic, and two for dedicated MPI traffic.



--
     John Hearns
     Senior HPC Engineer
     Streamline Computing,
     The Innovation Centre, Warwick Technology Park,
     Gallows Hill, Warwick CV34 6UW
     Office: 01926 623130 Mobile: 07841 231235
_______________________________________________
Beowulf mailing list, [email protected]
To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit 
http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf

Reply via email to