[Beowulf] Re: Building new cluster - estimate (Ivan Oleynik)

[Mike Davis]

>
> the thing I don't like about controlled PDUs is that they're pretty
> harsh - don't you expect a higher failure rate of node PSUs if you go 
> yanking the power this way?
>
> I have only seen a handful of different IPMI interfaces, but they all
> were reasonably reliable.

In using the ethernet interfaced PDU's for the past 8 years on several 
clusters, I haven't noticed a high PSU failure rate. In all honesty, we 
haven't had a unit connected to them ever lose a power supply.  One 
benefit of using the PDU solution is one enet for X machines rather than 
X additional enets for X machines. That being said, IPMI offers 
additional functionality not provided by the PDU's.

Mike Davis