From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 10 14:42:53 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 254EF20E for ; Mon, 10 Mar 2014 14:42:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-qc0-x231.google.com (mail-qc0-x231.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:400d:c01::231]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D6163149 for ; Mon, 10 Mar 2014 14:42:52 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-qc0-f177.google.com with SMTP id w7so7666000qcr.22 for ; Mon, 10 Mar 2014 07:42:52 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=references:mime-version:in-reply-to:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:message-id:cc:from:subject:date:to; bh=prIrnYLl5BSfMoInPI4cUE3YcgMAMn7KtiAGm7ooGLY=; b=nxMkTvb69EbUla30tZU7o9yQ55Y6sVtEjRIIB8E2sBJyEK/2t5ZQZKI6A4jl6dmno4 udIwSuFhAzWbLthYkm87fjrezxphuEmVDLlbpb0WojVc9hmk29hhdHqO63yHd+FthHJr nwhKe5NN3SXMewXhSxpyg/XalvhEK7fgATN1Lq2GglXNiWQj5p24SmgJs277siAjUltl sKhQCW58fI+LvAZGM9SrTSkDvXqvRLUdWMibLk0Q9cubHn9uFx3S6YnRtxa1wu9iyBMG ncta456T3MywLUFilfaFwZ8yzpMqvNB+BTuFwXP5cHFFfGLskjLoJuuCK8Ox65knyWsz 3TQA== X-Received: by 10.224.137.5 with SMTP id u5mr41800412qat.12.1394462572044; Mon, 10 Mar 2014 07:42:52 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [153.104.56.59] ([153.104.56.59]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPSA id x8sm53775347qam.20.2014.03.10.07.42.49 for (version=TLSv1 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA bits=128/128); Mon, 10 Mar 2014 07:42:50 -0700 (PDT) References: <531DCC30.7050505@rlwinm.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 (1.0) In-Reply-To: <531DCC30.7050505@rlwinm.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (11B651) From: Brian Kim Subject: Re: Setting up a UNIX cluster Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 10:42:50 -0400 To: Jan Bramkamp Cc: "freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org" X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.17 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 14:42:53 -0000 Dear Jan and Mickey, Thank you both for your beautifully prompt and succinct responses. They have= thoroughly answered the various facets of my inquiry... @mickey: thanks for the cgynus suggestion. Never even considered the option.= .. Best, bk Best, bk > On Mar 10, 2014, at 10:29 AM, Jan Bramkamp wrote: >=20 >> On 10.03.2014 14:44, Brian Kim wrote: >> Dear friends, >>=20 >> I am currently a teaching assistant for a freshman programming course at >> Villanova University. Gloriously enough, we are teaching the C language. >> The majority of the students have not had any previous experience in >> programming so the extent of their computing knowledge is limited to the >> grotesque Windows operating system that they have grown up with. Therefor= e, >> before any discussion of programming begins, I want the students to be >> familiarized with the UNIX environment so that they can gcc all their cod= e >> and not have to be chained down to IDE's. >> In order to accomplish this, I have amassed a number of old Dell computer= s >> that the department has long abandoned and I wish to set up a computer >> cluster running FreeBSD. I personally do not have any experience in setti= ng >> up clusters and was hoping to request any instructional advice in this >> regard. >> I have come across this paper ( >> http://people.freebsd.org/~brooks/papers/bsdcon2003/fbsdcluster.pdf) that= >> describes the process of setting up a BSD cluster with 300 nodes but I >> found the language to be somewhat dense. There is also the fact that I do= >> not have any specialized hardware other than a bunch of old computers. >> Assuming that I have a network switch, could anyone help me out with a >> starting point? >=20 > 1. Configure a test system to boot from PXE. > 2. Build a PXE boot environment for the test system with DHCP, TFTP and NFS= . > 3. Build a generic PXE boot image your systems. > 4. Decide how to administer the cluster. I can recommend ansible. > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hackers-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"=