Preliminary info on the Scyld Beowulf distribution

Horatio B. Bogbindero wyy at cersa.admu.edu.ph
Mon Oct 9 21:06:31 PDT 2000


is there a place where we can download an ISO instead?

On Mon, 9 Oct 2000, Donald Becker wrote:

> 
> Well, I guess I was scooped by SlashDot.
> 
> As many of you have guessed from the hints and list postings, Scyld has been
> working on the next-generation Beowulf system.
> 
> Our goal was an easy to install and run system that required minimal
> sysadmin knowledge for production use.  Our new distribution is also easy to
> use for developers.
> 
> Here are a few features that should help avoid common problems reported on
> the list:
> 
>   We use 'BProc' for almost everything.  This eliminates the environment and
>   path problems with 'rsh', and is far faster than either 'rsh' or 'ssh'.
> 
>   After years of discussions, we finally have a universal booting system.
>   It uses 'Two Kernel Monte' to replace a minimal initial kernel that knows
>   only about networking with a full kernel.
> 
>   Only the front-end "master" node has a full install.
> 
>   The compute "slave" nodes can run with only 40MB in their filesystem.
>   Essentially all of the 40MB is cached libraries, with most files in
>   /etc/*, such as /etc/passwd, not needed.
> 
>   Executables only need to exist on the front end machine.  We don't even
>   need /bin/sh on the slave nodes.
> 
>   The system is usable with 64MB.  128MB or larger is preferred for serious
>   applications.
> 
>   The system is based around a common distribution e.g. RedHat.  We replace
>   the kernel, the C library and a handful of utilities (the last two are for
>   LFS large file support).  We add the cluster control programs, including a
>   GUI, a custom MPI, etc.
> 
> We will showing this distribution later this week in Atlanta at the Linux
> Showcase.  If you won't be in Atlanta you can order a development preview
> CD-ROM distribution for only $2 from LinuxCentral at
>      http://linuxcentral.com/catalog/index.php3?prod_code=L000-089
> 
> 
> Donald Becker				becker at scyld.com
> Scyld Computing Corporation		http://www.scyld.com
> 410 Severn Ave. Suite 210		Second Generation Beowulf Clusters
> Annapolis MD 21403			410-990-9993
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Beowulf mailing list
> Beowulf at beowulf.org
> http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
> 

 
---------------------
william.s.yu at ieee.org
 
I don't remember it, but I have it written down.
 





More information about the Beowulf mailing list