[Beowulf] using two separate networks for different data streams

[Ricardo Reis]

First, Hi all and thanks for your answers. Were truly useful. Which brings 
me to...

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006, Mark Hahn wrote:

> I wonder whether anyone has critically evaluated whether this is important.
> cluster people I talk to like to say fuzzy things like "separate networks
> make the cluster breathe better".
>
> as much as I admire car analogies, I observe that when apps are doing IO,
> they tend not to be doing MPI.  if your workload is like that, bonding
> rather than partitioning would actually improve performance.  I wonder
> whether the partitioning approach might actual reflect other constraints,
> such as using half-duplex hubs, or low-bisection networks.

as anyone comments on this? because it hit my next question, if anyone had 
experiences (measurable) of performance. I've also read/heard about 
load balancing the network, I figure this is using the two network cards 
but having a network loadbalancing (software? hardware) attached and take 
the utmost from both network cards. any one has ideas about this?

  best regards,

  Ricardo Reis

  "Non Serviam"

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