[Beowulf] PVM or ???

[Anand Bisen]

Hello Timo,

I have been using Rocks on my test cluster and am planning to use it in 
my production environment by next month. Although i have not used rocks 
at production level but i have been using rocks for over 6 months and 
have not used it's XFree86 at all. Since i generally monitor and 
administer my cluster remotely XFree86 is of limited use for me.  I 
generally configure X with a ssh and X11 forwarding on and then 
configure the vncserver that i can  remotely log in with GUI interface 
if required.

On a different note it would be more practical to get a new graphics 
card that is supported with a distribution that will help you manage the 
cluster more efficiently rather than going with a distribution that 
supports your video card and does not provide enough flexibility.

Thanks

Anand Singh Bisen



mechti01 wrote:

>Hi Anand,
>
>Thank you very much for reading my message and taking the time to reply. 
>Your help has aroused some thought as to what I really want to do with the
>cluster and also provided some valuable insight on different ways to
>implemented.  Initially the cluster will mainly be used in the physics
>department for running calculations and simulations, but the usage will
>hopefully be expanded into the Biology and Computer Science departments as
>well at a later time.
>
>I have taken a closer look at Rocks Linux and even tried to install in on
>a subset of the cluster systems.  Problems caused by unsupported
>videocards prompted me to continue looking for other cluster
>distributions, however.  I plan to try Mandrakesoft's CLIC 2.0 next.  I've
>also downloaded ClusterMatic 4 and might give that a try as well.  Would
>you, or anyone else who might be reading this, have any experience with
>either or both of these systems?
>
>Thanks again for your help.
>
>Regards,
>
>-Timo Mechler
>
>
>  
>
>>Timo,
>>
>>what is the area where you will be using this cluster for is it only for
>>practice and programming  and trying different ways where you could use
>>a cluster. If it is the latter then i would suggest installing PVM and
>>MPI both on that cluster and if you go ahead with rocks linux
>>distribution that is optimized for cluster you would get both of them
>>preconfigured. More over you should try some kind of DRM (Distributed
>>Resource Management System) too i.e. either Sun Grid Engine or PBS.
>>
>>I dont know the dist sizes on your machines but it would be fun and nice
>>to configure PVFS (Parallel Virtual File System) on your cluster that
>>will be advantageous in multiple ways for one it will give you a good
>>experience and second you could always use some good global space for
>>your cluster.
>>
>>There are many things you could do with your cluster most probably you
>>will get more replies to your mail.
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>Anand S Bisen
>>
>>
>>Timo Mechler wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Hi all,
>>>
>>>I'm in the process of building my first ever beowulf cluster and have
>>>come
>>>here to ask for some advice pertaining to what parallel computing system
>>>I
>>>should go with.  With the intention of keeping this email as short and
>>>conscise as possible, perhaps the best way to start out is to list what
>>>I'm going to be using on the hardware side of things:
>>>
>>>Number of machines:  15 (expected to grow to 24 and possibly larger)
>>>CPU Speed:  Anything from a dual Pentium 3 550mhz system to Pentium 2
>>>233mhz systems
>>>RAM:  Anywhere from 256mb to 64mb
>>>Network:  100mbit CAT5
>>>OS:  Slackware 9.1 Linux
>>>Switch:  D-Link 24 port 10/100mbit
>>>
>>>As you can see their is some diversity present in my hardware setup.
>>>Given that fact, my initial intentions where to go with PVM.  I have
>>>successfully setup PVM on a subset of these machines in the past and it
>>>has worked out great.  However, do you guys think PVM would be the best
>>>solution for this setup, or could I also with MPI or some variant of it?
>>>I'm using all x86 systems so I thought this might be possible.  Are there
>>>still a lot of people out there that use PVM?  That was another one of my
>>>concerns that led my thinking towards MPI.  How about programming
>>>difficulty?  I've never done any parallel programming for PVM or MPI.
>>>
>>>Finally, once again looking at my setup above, does anyone else have any
>>>suggestions for improvement in terms of operating system or hardware?
>>>
>>>Thanks in advance for your help.  The knowledge I've gained so far from
>>>this mailing list has been priceless.  Thank you!
>>>
>>>Regards,
>>>
>>>-Timo Mechler
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>
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>>
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