disadvantages of a linux cluster

[Mark Hahn]

> 256-processor Intel clusters (home grown apps). We run in parallel with
> MPI Pro and Cluster Controller and Windows 2000. Reliability is 5-nines;
> manageability tools have helped us to reduce systems administration
> costs/staff.	

so what would be the list price of that software?  do you have any
data on how reliability would compare with a linux approach?
also, .99999 is impressive, only 5 minutes a year; how long have 
you had the cluster?  is that .99999 counted for all nodes,
or do you mean "at least some nodes worked for .99999 of the time"?

if you really mean that the sum of all downtime (across all 256 nodes)
is 5 minutes/year, that's truely remarkable!

thanks, mark hahn.