[Beowulf] small file systems

[Lombard, David N]

On Mon, Aug 27, 2007 at 04:15:18PM -0700, Jim Lux wrote:
> At 03:46 PM 8/27/2007, Lombard, David N wrote:
> >On Mon, Aug 27, 2007 at 03:07:22PM -0700, Jim Lux wrote:
> >> And here's a challenge at the other end of the spectrum.
> >>
> >> What's the lowest cost, simplest, closest to off the shelf way to
> >> build a small network file server that can do DHCP/PXE booting, etc.
> >> for a compact low power cluster.  Something like a LinkSys NSLU-2
> >> (<$100 but you need to add a USB disk, and load a new version of the
> >> OS that has dhcpd and tftpd) could probably do it, but it would be
> >> nice to have an integrated solution.
> >
> >Putting dhcpd, xinetd, tftp, pxelinux, &etc on the head node?  What 
> >precludes
> >this "software only" solution?
> Essentially, the mini-server IS the head node.  It doesn't have to do 
> very much... get the worker bees up and running, and, I suppose, 
> potentially fire off the jobs on the workers, although that might 
> just be done in the startup script for the node.
> 
> While this isn't the "Beowulf of Furbys" it's pretty darn close..

OK, so you're looking for a minimal server platform.

Take a look at gumstix <http://gumstix.com/>

-- 
David N. Lombard, Intel, Irvine, CA
I do not speak for Intel Corporation; all comments are strictly my own.