[Beowulf] scaling / file serving

[Patrice Seyed]

Hi,

A current cluster with 15 nodes/ 30 processors mainly used for batch
computing has one head/management node that maintains scheduling services as
well as home directories for users. The cluster is due for an upgrade that
will increase the number of compute nodes to about 100. I'm considering
breaking out one of the compute nodes, adding disks, and making it a
storage/file server node.

At what point in scaling up would you folks recommend adding a node
dedicated to file serving of home dirs, etc.? I have a separate cluster with
134 nodes purchased with the storage node in mind.

Regards,
 
Patrice Seyed
Linux System Administrator - SIG
RHCE, SCSA
Boston University School of Medicine