[Beowulf] Re: quick and dirty cluster demo

[Michael Creel]

On 6/23/06, Jim Lux <James.P.Lux at jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
> I was recently asked about how one would go about doing a quick cluster
> demo with the following configuration:
>
> a laptop running a TBD version of Linux
> a bunch (4-16) of diskless nodes  (implying that they need to netboot with
> PXE, etc.)
> all connected with ethernet..
>
> Seems like something like warewulf would do this nicely, but are there
> other alternatives? ClusterKnoppix?
>
> And then, what's a nice demo showing speedup?  POVray rendering?  glitz and
> flashy is important, raw speed is not.  It would be nice if you had
> something that took, say, 30 seconds to run on just the laptop, and then,
> as you add nodes, it gets faster and faster.
>
> James Lux, P.E.
> Spacecraft Radio Frequency Subsystems Group
> Flight Communications Systems Section
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 161-213
> 4800 Oak Grove Drive
> Pasadena CA 91109
> tel: (818)354-2075
> fax: (818)393-6875
>

ParallelKnoppix is quick, and with a proper selection of wallpaper,
you can make it as dirty as you like. It does what you want, and has a
selection of examples using MPI (LAM, MPICH, openMPI) and PVM (the PVM
patched povray is included).
http://pareto.uab.es/mcreel/ParallelKnoppix
M.