Beowulf clusters

[prokaryote]

Does anyone here have any experience using, building or setting up a Beowulf cluster for parallel computing?

[TGC]

Yes, using TurboLinux's Turbo Cluster 6.0.

[prokaryote]

Hi TGC,

Excellent, can it be done using win-doze? And is it very hard to do? Is TurboLinux cluster 6.0 expensive? Also, if one is not familiar with Unix/Linux, what kind of learning overhead would be involved? The algorithms that I'm working with can be modified to be parsed out relatively easily so that aspect should be okay, but it is in Matlab.

Appreciate your help.

prok.

[TGC]

Don't know about Windows (though there are Win clustered systems) having only used TurboLinux. The learning curve can be extreme depending on what you are trying to accomplish. I choose TurboLinux because of the ability to setup with stock systems, just had to add FastEthernet and switich (not hub). You can now build a cluster with off the shelf (retail products) for very little cash. The software is what cost ( at the time about 2500 US dollars). With the right software, equipment you can now reliase 96-98% processing effientcy.

Will look into finding a Win solution, have sparked my interest.

[TGC]

A few links


http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/ProductInfo/Enterprise/clustering/ClustArchit.asp

http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/D.Corney/ClusteringMatlab.html

http://www.ats.ucla.edu/at/clustering/

http://lcic.org/

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/planning/server/clustersteps.asp


You can download the demo's for setting up Turbo here----->

http://www.turbolinux.com/products/enf/index.html
http://www.turbolinux.com/products/tcs/index.html

[prokaryote]

Hi TGC,

Thanks for the links. Will look through and browse. The Enfuzion looks promising as that can be used on all of our test floor workstations, testers, and servers which all run some form of _nix.

prok.

[TGC]

EnFusion is the node software needed, but you still need a controller this is where we used Turbo Cluster as the controler/server. Don't know about pricing now could be more reasonable than 2years? ago.