[Beowulf] clustering using xen virtualized machines

[Geoff Galitz]

I've had the good fortune to be in the HPC and also HA business for a few
years (10 years for HPC but only about 4 for HA).  Given the current
approach for virtualization I don't see that Xen or other virtualization
technologies are good for HPC environments if the performance is a paramount
concern.

Virtualization in an HPC/HA world is mostly beneficial for portability and
fail-over.  But the added layer for a hypervisor will be significant if your
jobs run for an extended period of time.  I've seen jobs that run for
months...  a 7% performance penalty (fairly typical in my experience) over
the course of a month is significant.



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Geoff Galitz
Blankenheim NRW, Germany
http://www.galitz.org/
http://german-way.com/blog/