[Beowulf] Resources for starting a Beowulf Cluster (NFS Setup?)

[Buccaneer for Hire.]

--- Mark Hahn <hahn at mcmaster.ca> wrote:


> can NIS actually preserve shadow-ness of passwords? 
> I would never run a cluster that exposed encrypted
> passwords.

I don't include root (or other sometimes critical)
password and let nsswitch handle how it works. The
cluster is segregated from my normal network-and the
login node and monitoring/grid node are the only ones
with access to the cluster nodes and the real world.


> for small clusters, I would definitely use nfs-root;
> for larger ones, probably ldap.  having a cron job
> run rsync frequently isn't a terrible solution, 
> though, especially if there's one canonical node (a 
> login node) where the only changes are made.

Remember for my $DAYJOB I run commercial clusters
where downtime have real implications and a real cost
associated with it.  I build each node stand-alone. 
If an NFS server drops out there is a good chance the
entire cluster won't hit the skids.

We tried using rsync for our kickstart servers and
found that when you are pressed for time you don't
always remember to manually rsync and have to wait
until the normal rsync time.

LDAP takes too much work for a small cluster unless it
is part of your normal infrastructure.






       
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