I have a 10 blade cluster of just hardware - I can install what I want, how I want. ? What options are there if I wanted to build the 10 blades as one large beast, but _NOT_ necessarily for someone doing grid-type work? ? ?Some users don't now how to program that way, but they'd like to have their program run on something that acts like a single processor, but a massive single processor with lots of memory. ?Some code is designed for a single, powerful workstation. ?I'd like this cluster to act as one powerful workstation. Thanks for insights. Scott
Scott Ehrlich wrote:> ?Some code is designed for a single, powerful workstation. ?I'd like > this cluster to act as one powerful workstation.Good luck with that.. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/04/scalemp_vsmp_smb_cloud/ Is the only product I've heard of that claims to do what your aiming for. Suggest your programmers get with the game and learn how to effectively scale their apps horizontally or be left behind. nate
Scott:> ?Some code is designed for a single, powerful workstation. ?I'd like > this cluster to act as one powerful workstation.I think your application has to be designed to run in a cluster environment. Splitting up a job into multiple streams of execution requires some the application to coordinate the different pieces that are running. Neil -- Neil Aggarwal, (281)846-8957, http://www.JAMMConsulting.com CentOS 5.4 KVM VPS $55/mo, no setup fee, no contract, dedicated 64bit CPU 1GB dedicated RAM, 40GB RAID storage, 500GB/mo premium BW, Zero downtime
On Sat, 7 Nov 2009, Scott Ehrlich wrote:> I have a 10 blade cluster of just hardware - I can install what I > want, how I want. ? What options are there if I wanted to build the 10 > blades as one large beast, but _NOT_ necessarily for someone doing > grid-type work? ? ?Some users don't now how to program that way, but > they'd like to have their program run on something that acts like a > single processor, but a massive single processor with lots of memory. > ?Some code is designed for a single, powerful workstation. ?I'd like > this cluster to act as one powerful workstation.I have had okay experiences with ScaleMPs vSMP software. Depending on workload it may or may not be good for your needs but it does work, however, you'll also need to ensure that the nodes are connected via a high speed interconnect like Infiniband. The vSMP system is based around a COMA architecture. As such some memory is reserved for caching to hide the latencies. We had issues with job affinities. Jobs would migrate from CPU to CPU frequently leading to rather poor performance. All of these findings were reported to them as we were an early adoptor. While this can for for some of your jobs, I would advise that if you are looking to the long term, consider taking advantage of MPI, OpenMP or concurrent languages like Erlang. You'll be happier for it. -- James A. Peltier Systems Analyst (FASNet), VIVARIUM Technical Director HPC Coordinator Simon Fraser University - Burnaby Campus Phone : 778-782-6573 Fax : 778-782-3045 E-Mail : jpeltier at sfu.ca Website : http://www.fas.sfu.ca | http://vivarium.cs.sfu.ca http://blogs.sfu.ca/people/jpeltier MSN : subatomic_spam at hotmail.com Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months. - Clifford Stoll
On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 7:57 PM, Scott Ehrlich <srehrlich at gmail.com> wrote:> ?Some code is designed for a single, powerful workstation. ?I'd like > this cluster to act as one powerful workstation.I was going to suggest OpenMOSIX but that turned out to be quite dead :-( 2 minutes of frantic googling led to this project: http://www.kerrighed.org which at least seems to be alive, but I haven't tried it myself. with kind regards, Bent Terp
Scott Ehrlich wrote:> I have a 10 blade cluster of just hardware - I can install what I > want, how I want. What options are there if I wanted to build the 10 > blades as one large beast, but _NOT_ necessarily for someone doing > grid-type work? Some users don't now how to program that way, but > they'd like to have their program run on something that acts like a > single processor, but a massive single processor with lots of memory. > Some code is designed for a single, powerful workstation. I'd like > this cluster to act as one powerful workstation. >9 women can't make a baby in one month.
From: Scott Ehrlich <srehrlich at gmail.com>> I have a 10 blade cluster of just hardware - I can install what I > want, how I want. What options are there if I wanted to build the 10 > blades as one large beast, but _NOT_ necessarily for someone doing > grid-type work? Some users don't now how to program that way, but > they'd like to have their program run on something that acts like a > single processor, but a massive single processor with lots of memory. > Some code is designed for a single, powerful workstation. I'd like > this cluster to act as one powerful workstation.Maybe check http://open.eucalyptus.com/ JD