From owner-freebsd-cluster@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Dec 1 13:47:05 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-cluster@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5544716A4CE for ; Wed, 1 Dec 2004 13:47:05 +0000 (GMT) Received: from rose.ift.uni.wroc.pl (rose.ift.uni.wroc.pl [156.17.88.38]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 716EA43D54 for ; Wed, 1 Dec 2004 13:47:03 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from zkoza@ift.uni.wroc.pl) Received: from localhost (zkoza@localhost)iB1DjND10475 for ; Wed, 1 Dec 2004 14:45:23 +0100 (CET) Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 14:45:23 +0100 (CET) From: Koza Zbigniew To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subject: clustering: how to start? X-BeenThere: freebsd-cluster@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Clustering FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2004 13:47:05 -0000 We have just bought 4 dual-processor Xeon boxes for a physics department and want to turn it into a computing cluster. This means we want that the users will communicate with it via ssh/sftp and see all processors as if they were part of a one virtual UNIX machine with 8 processors on board. A typical job we want to run is (a bunch of) numerical simulation programs that run for 2 weeks or so. Thus, the cluster will serve only as a numerical workstation. We have experimented with Debian and OpenMosix. The first outcome of our tests is that Intels' so much advertised Hyperthreading technology is a disaster. Then, OpenMosix seems to have a bug that can bring the whole system to halt if one tries to run simultanieously several memory-consuming processes. We have also problems with compiling custom Linux kernel so that it could see all the swap space and memory it should see. Then I recalled that several years ago I experimented with FreeBSD and I liked it. Now I hear that FreeBSD supports SMP "natively", so no kernel recompilation will be necessary. I thought - maybe we could try and use FreeBSD instead of Debian? Now my question is: where should I start? Which docs should I read? Which program(s) should I use to cluster our 4 FreeBSD boxes? regards, Z. Koza