[Beowulf] Have machine, will compute: ESXi or bare metal?

[Skylar Thompson]

On Sun, Feb 09, 2020 at 10:46:05PM -0800, Chris Samuel wrote:
> On 9/2/20 10:36 pm, Benson Muite wrote:
> 
> > Take a look at the bootable cluster CD here:
> > http://www.littlefe.net/
> 
> From what I can see BCCD hasn't been updated for just over 5 years, and the
> last email on their developer list was Feb 2018, so it's likely a little out
> of date now.
> 
> http://bccd.net/downloads
> 
> http://bccd.net/pipermail/bccd-developers/
> 
> On the other hand their TRAC does list some ticket updates a few months ago,
> so perhaps there are things going on but Skylar needs more hands?
> 
> https://cluster.earlham.edu/trac/bccd-ng/report/1?sort=created&asc=0&page=1

Wow, I had no idea people on the Beowulf list were still thinking of BCCD.
:)

I've been working on a major BCCD update for a while now (modern Debian,
better node auto-detection) but a combination of life interference and a
shift in focus for the project to curriculum development has slowed me
down.

At the end of the day, BCCD has three has three main goals:

1. Non-destructive in its default mode
2. Simple ("just press enter")
3. Ready with pedagogically-useful ("validated, verified, and accredited")
curriculum modules

One thing I'm hoping can come out of this major update is to decouple the BCCD
from the underlying distribution, since that's been a barrier for some
people in using BCCD. That's just an aspiration right now, but we'll see
where it goes.

I'll get off my soapbox and get back to work. :)

-- 
Skylar