I too am exploring a very similar project. I am a senior in Physics with delusions/dreams of Computational Science as a Phd. I see the Physics computers running NT and think...I need a Masters project, and my advisor and the Physics Chairperson both agree that building a working beowulf would do fine. It doesn't need to do grand challenges, just demonstrate principles. The CIS department has offered me old slow network cards. I am a year away from starting, but would appreciate being pointed at good reference materials.
Jose Marin wrote: > Hi there, > > Since there's a very low traffic on this list I thought it would be OK > if I send a long post with many questions ;-) > > Sorry if some of them are not exactly Debian-beowulf related, but none > of the other Debian lists seemed appropriate. And since I use Debian > I thought I'd ask here before I turn to the Beowulf list. > > I've got a project in my hands which involves using an existing PC lab > (the undergrads PCs, which runs NT) as a Beowulf-like Linux cluster. > The machines dual-boot NT and Linux, and we make use of them when the > students are on vacation. The project is mostly for "experimental" > purposes in parallel computing. They're connected by lowly 10Mbit > ethernet, so we're hardly going to run any Grand Challenge stuff. > > This brings up my first question: anybody knows of a "loadlin" type of > program for WindowsNT? Or a way to hack LILO to decide what to boot > by looking at the clock? (the CMOS clock I assume) It's more or less > trivial to schedule reboots from one OS or the other, but then I'd > like to have control also on the bootloader. The idea is to have > automatic (unattended) switching from one OS to the other (and back) > based on some programmed schedule. I asked this some time ago on > c.o.l.setup and didn't get any answers. > > Now for the real meat. I've decided that I'm building the cluster as > a NOW, rather than a Beowulf cluster. The idea behind this decision > is that since each machine has 1Gb of HD available, I might as well > build a NOW, and make it more versatile than a Beowulf. Graduate > students may then use the lab under Linux, and do both parallel > computations and "workstation" stuff. It would somehow duplicate the > NT lab, and would be a perfect working example to show the University > how they could save $$$ if they chose Linux instead. > > So here's my question: where are the docs relating to building a > Debian-based network of workstations? I checked the Debian > Administration Manual and it's all "work in progress". > > To be a bit more precise: I chose Debian because in the long run it is > the best to administer on a single machine. But when dealing with a > distributed network running NIS/NFS, how does one go about in order to > keep the benefits of apt/dpkg? (like painless upgrades!) I guess I'm > just looking for tips, howtos, and possible gotchas when using Debian > for a PC lab running NIS/NFS. > > An overview of my planned network structure: [comments welcome!] > -------------------------------------------- > > * there are 16 identical machines, each one with 1Gb of HD available > for Linux. > > * all Debian installation/upgrades centralized on one machine. This > will be also the NIS server. > > * the rest of the nodes copy their root filesystem (everything except > \usr and \home) from the server, probably using rsync. The finer > details of the personalization for each node (IP & hostname, \var > hierarchy and such) will be taken care by scripts, adding maybe DHCP > in there too. I'll need some comments here. > > * each node, including the server, will have a largish \home > partition. User accounts will be distributed, then cross-mounted with > NFS. A subdir in \home\scratch will be world-writeable locally on > each node, for ``scratch'' parallel I/O in MPI or PVM jobs. The > server would actually have a smaller \home partition hosting only a > \home\scratch directory, because it won't have room for other user > homedirs. > > * some other client nodes might also have smaller \home partitions and > then have a \usr\local or \opt in order to install non-Debian stuff > (commercial compilers or what have you), and export it with NFS. > > * since the machines have IPs on the Net (I can't change that), I'll > need to use ssh. I hope it works OK with MPI and PVM. > > * I plan to use shadow passwords now. Do they work OK with NIS in > slink or potato? > --------------------------------------------- > > So you see that under this plan all Debian upgrades (with apt or dpkg) > would take place on the master server, and then I would take care of > the rest of the machines more or less by homebrew methods. But is > there any other better way? > > Cheers, > > JL > ============================================================================= > Jose L. Mar�n [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Dept of Maths [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Heriot-Watt University > Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K. > Phone: +44 131 451 3893 > Fax: +44 131 451 3249 > > Former address: Dept. de F�sica de la Materia Condensada > Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza > 50009 Zaragoza, SPAIN > ============================================================================= > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
