Xen users - Jul 2006 - Xen as alternative for openMosix? about clustering

Hi all,

My problem: I have some desktop pc''s on my work I would like to use as 
calculation nodes in a cluster.
When I  start a job on the central node,  the cluster should be able to 
load balance these jobs.

Has anybody ever used Xen for this purpose?  What are the alternatives, 
besides Xen and OpenMosix?
In our group we have used openMosix, but we seem to get more and more 
faults we can not solve.   Development  of openMosix also seems to have 
stopped.

The idea for using XEN:
Run several light weight OS on the central node.  Log in to one of these 
light weight OS, start your process and let load balancing take care of 
the job?
Has anybody already tried this?  What are the pros and cons of this idea?

regards

Peter


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On Tuesday 11 July 2006 10:49, Peter Vandersteegen
wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> My problem: I have some desktop pc''s on my work I would like to
use as
> calculation nodes in a cluster.
> When I  start a job on the central node,  the cluster should be able to
> load balance these jobs.
>
> Has anybody ever used Xen for this purpose?  What are the alternatives,
> besides Xen and OpenMosix?
> In our group we have used openMosix, but we seem to get more and more
> faults we can not solve.   Development  of openMosix also seems to have
> stopped.
>
> The idea for using XEN:
> Run several light weight OS on the central node.  Log in to one of these
> light weight OS, start your process and let load balancing take care of
> the job?
> Has anybody already tried this?  What are the pros and cons of this idea?
>
> regards
>
> Peter
Xen can only virtualize N logical systems over single phisical system ..
the resources of the phisical system are limited and no advantage can be taken 
introducing the xen overhead (even if little) ...
openMosix makes you use N *phisical* system as a single logical system, the 
cluster itself ... and tries to make this transparent to the userspace 
applications...

these two concept are totally differents ... 

-- 
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On Wednesday 12 July 2006 10:28, Emiliano Gabrielli
wrote:
> On Tuesday 11 July 2006 10:49, Peter Vandersteegen wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > My problem: I have some desktop pc''s on my work I would like
to use as
> > calculation nodes in a cluster.
> > When I  start a job on the central node,  the cluster should be able
to
> > load balance these jobs.
> >
> > Has anybody ever used Xen for this purpose?  What are the
alternatives,
> > besides Xen and OpenMosix?
> > In our group we have used openMosix, but we seem to get more and more
> > faults we can not solve.   Development  of openMosix also seems to
have
> > stopped.
> >
> > The idea for using XEN:
> > Run several light weight OS on the central node.  Log in to one of
these
> > light weight OS, start your process and let load balancing take care
of
> > the job?
> > Has anybody already tried this?  What are the pros and cons of this
idea?
> >
> > regards
> >
> > Peter
>
> Xen can only virtualize N logical systems over single phisical system ..
> the resources of the phisical system are limited and no advantage can be
> taken introducing the xen overhead (even if little) ...
> openMosix makes you use N *phisical* system as a single logical system, the
> cluster itself ... and tries to make this transparent to the userspace
> applications...
>
> these two concept are totally differents ...
I think Peter was referring to using Xen''s live OS migration instead of
process migration...  Is that right Peter?

Although as Emiliano stated, you can only have one virtual machine resident on 
one physical machine at once, if you split up each computation job onto a 
different virtual machien it should be possible to load balance those jobs 
across the cluster.

Note that there''s no (free) load balancer for Xen at the moment, but
you could
probably write your own.

Cheers,
Mark

-- 
Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat?  And no pedals!
Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
Mark: My wheel has a wheel!

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Mark Williamson wrote:
>On Wednesday 12 July 2006 10:28, Emiliano Gabrielli wrote:
>  
>
>>On Tuesday 11 July 2006 10:49, Peter Vandersteegen wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Hi all,
>>>
>>>My problem: I have some desktop pc''s on my work I would
like to use as
>>>calculation nodes in a cluster.
>>>When I  start a job on the central node,  the cluster should be able
to
>>>load balance these jobs.
>>>
>>>The idea for using XEN:
>>>Run several light weight OS on the central node.  Log in to one of
these
>>>light weight OS, start your process and let load balancing take care
of
>>>the job?
>>>Has anybody already tried this?  What are the pros and cons of this
idea?
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>
>I think Peter was referring to using Xen''s live OS migration
instead of
>process migration...  Is that right Peter?
>
>Although as Emiliano stated, you can only have one virtual machine resident
on
>one physical machine at once, if you split up each computation job onto a 
>different virtual machien it should be possible to load balance those jobs 
>across the cluster.
>
>  
>
That was indeed the main idea.  (Some questions remain concerning the 
overhead)
>Note that there''s no (free) load balancer for Xen at the moment,
but you could
>probably write your own.
>  
>
Aha, that is a bigger problem  :).

By the way, thanks for all the replies.

regards

Peter



-- 
**********************************************************
Peter Vandersteegen
Ghent University - IMEC
Dept. of Information Technology (INTEC)
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
Tel: +32 9 264 3447
Fax: +32 9 264 3593
Email: Peter.Vandersteegen@UGent.be
Website: photonics.intec.ugent.be
********************************************************** 


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