Parallel Processing

[Ercewee]

I'm building my own parallel cluster.

It's a NoW-cluster, Network of Workstations. I can't name it a Beowulf cluster because some of the nodes (drones) are my own and my brothers workstation. And a Beowulf cluster by definition consists of dedicated nodes.

On it runs MPICH, an implementation of the Message Passage Interface.

MPICH is just the layer that takes care of the communication between the drones. With it you get fortran and C command you can use in your own program.

info can be found on my homepage: http://home.quicknet.nl/mw/prive/buisman/parallel_processing.htm

Siggy checked that page for errors..... If you find any, please tell me..... So I can throw them at Siggy :P :D

I still have to take some pictures of the cluster. I'll put them later on my homepage.

Has anyone else experience with MPI, or any other program for parallel tasks, like VPM, MOSIX,......?

[siggy]

Do you think they are running G@H on these?

Soupercomputer (http://stonesoup.esd.ornl.gov/photos/2000-08/)

[EOC_Jason]

One of these weekends when I get some free time, I'm going to convert all my machines into a beowulf cluster running FreeBSD and also doing a diskless boot to the master server. One of the main things that is holding me back is getting a bunch of NICs that have the boot roms on them, also I'm thinking of putting in two per machine so I can do channel bonding and get a little more effiecency out of the thing.

[Daniel, Laura, and Nora]

Diskless boots? That sounds like pansy stuff to me. I only use sh*t-kickin' boots.

Okay, okay, I'm banished to the siggy thread.

[Ercewee]

EOC_Jason,

yup, diskless boot would be nice.... I never started with it. I don't have any nic's with bootrom.
Bonding would be nice, but I don't have enough nics. Neither would, in my situation, the performance increase very much.
What kind of parallel programs do you plan to run on your cluster?
And what are you going to use to distribute yours programs over the cluster? PVM, MPI,......?

edit: typo

[EOC_Jason]

I plan on using PVM & MPI... Though I am also looking into PBS...

I'm still in the "Need to get my ass in gear" stage... Too many other things that are higher priority...

I'm not sure what I want to use them for right now... I just want to build it just because...

If the G@H code was open source & written in C I could probably parrallelize the code and do that... ;)

The reason I'm going diskless is because it just wouldn't be feasable for me to have a hard drive on all the systems I plan on putting together... Unless someone runs across a ton of free hard drives... ;)

[Ercewee]

Originally posted by siggy
Do you think they are running G@H on these?

Soupercomputer (http://stonesoup.esd.ornl.gov/photos/2000-08/)

Don't know, I doubt it.

I really like their soupercomputer. It's fun. Would be even fun to work there and maintain that cluster.

I don't want to know what their electrical bill is :)

[Ercewee]

Originally posted by EOC_Jason
I plan on using PVM & MPI... Though I am also looking into PBS...

Hmmm, I don't know PBS.... What's their main webpage?

I'm not sure what I want to use them for right now... I just want to build it just because...

Same for me :D

If the G@H code was open source & written in C I could probably parrallelize the code and do that... ;)

Yup, but what is the advantage to do that? G@H is already distributed. You only have to start it on every node of your cluster, a simple batch program, or even a script and it's running.

[X-Calibur]

Originally posted by EOC_Jason
One of these weekends when I get some free time, I'm going to convert all my machines into a beowulf cluster running FreeBSD and also doing a diskless boot to the master server. One of the main things that is holding me back is getting a bunch of NICs that have the boot roms on them, also I'm thinking of putting in two per machine so I can do channel bonding and get a little more effiecency out of the thing.

Sweet talking there mate, you're talking my language...

I've heard a lot of good things about FreeBSD, do you have any good bookmarks that I can refer too?

About the netboot cluster, you can get Mobo with built-in RJ45 jack and onboard boot rom.... simple and fast... or boot from a floopy... but I guess you can have used net cards for less then used floppy drives....


Wanna get in gear, cuz I'm for a go at this project...

Regards

X'