[Beowulf] RAID for home beowulf

[Tony Travis]

Mark Hahn wrote:
>>  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1030849
>>
>> I used RH6-9, and Fedora core2, but I switched to Debian and now Ubuntu.
> 
> sorry, I read that thread and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EasyUbuntuClustering
> but nothing really jumped out at me besides a little mac-envy.  could you
> describe what concrete issues you think makes Ubuntu more appealing for
> clustering than other distros?

Hello, Mark

I think Debian is well established as a reliable server operating 
system, and Ubuntu *is* Debian. However, I'm not asserting that Debian 
or Ubuntu are better for clustering than other distro's. The thread I 
started is about using Kerrighed under Ubuntu. Most of the Kerrighed 
development has been done under Mandriva, but I want to use Ubuntu.

What I am saying is that Ubuntu users are interested in clustering.

I use Ubuntu on our Beowulf for several reasons but, in particular, we 
use Bio-Linux:

   http://nebc.nox.ac.uk/nebc/tools/bio-linux

I ported openMosix to Ubuntu 6.06, but I'm now planning to replace it 
with Kerrighed. Much of the bioinformatics and modelling work we do is 
embarrasingly parallel and SSI is appropriate for that. We access the 
system via NX desktops, and Ubuntu presents a much more polished user 
interface than Debian, which is why I switched from Debian to Ubuntu.

There have been discussions here before about why the APT system is 
poplular. As a matter of fact, I used APT for RPM when I used RH-based 
systems. Although I am, clearly, advocating Ubuntu for HPC it is more 
from the perspective of advocating HPC for Ubuntu. I understand that 
people using HPC in other areas would equally want to use e.g. CentOS 
for similar reasons that I want to use Ubuntu. What we all want to do is 
use HPC in a familiar environment that supports our work.

I don't think *any* distro is 'best' for HPC, but many groups want to 
use a particular distro because their favourite software is available.

Bye,

   Tony.
-- 
Dr. A.J.Travis, University of Aberdeen, Rowett Institute of Nutrition
and Health, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB21 9SB, Scotland, UK
tel +44(0)1224 712751, fax +44(0)1224 716687, http://www.rowett.ac.uk
mailto:a.travis at abdn.ac.uk, http://bioinformatics.rri.sari.ac.uk/~ajt