Slashdot Mirror
How Well Does Windows Cluster?
cascadefx asks: "I work for a mid-sized mid-western university. One of our departments has started up a small Beowulf cluster research project that he hopes to grow over time. At the moment, the thing is incredibly weak... but it is running on old hardware and is basically used for dog and pony shows to get more funding and hopefully donations of higher-end systems. It runs Linux and works, it is just not anything to write home about. Here's the problem: my understanding is that an MS rep asked what it would take to get them to switch to a Microsoft cluster. Is this possible? Are there MS clusters that do what Beowulf clusters are capable of? I thought MS clusters were for load balancing, not computation... which is the hoped-for goal of this project. Can the Slashdot crowd offer some advice? If there are MS clusters, comparisons of the capabilities would be welcome." One has to only go as far as Microsoft's site to see its current attempt at clustering, but what is the real story. Have any of you had a chance to pit a Linux Beowulf cluster against one from Microsoft? How did they compare?
What do you call a cluster of Windows machines
when they Blue Screen?????
A Cluster Bomb!!!!
Service guarantees Citizenship! Questions Guarantee GITMO.... Amerika Uber Alles!
One has to only go as far as Microsoft's site to see
Ah, so this is a typical Ask Slashdot then?
--saint
With their vaunted stability, and marketing
savvy, their new Cluster Product will be called:
The Cluster Bomb!
Service guarantees Citizenship! Questions Guarantee GITMO.... Amerika Uber Alles!
"from the please...no-more-beowulf-jokes dept."
too late
Sent from your iPad.
oh, but remember,
:-p
the TCO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you know how expencive a CS student is!!!! oh my god, how can they afford the astronomical amount of having 5 or 6 of them on one project.
don't you know that if you move to windows for all your reaseach project clustering needs, you only need a chimp....and since educating a chimp is much cheaper than educating 6 bright young men, your university will save a considerable amount of money....especialy when you lay off all those expencive profs and hire an animal trainer.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Looks like Microsoft is busy being slashdotted.
Gives new meaning to the term cluster-fsck.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
but based on personal experience, Windows ME is pretty much a cluster.
'Same speed C but faster'
Persuade one of your mates to sell them a site license for Linux. If that doesn't work, find some pro-Linux company and offer them some easy cash.
If there's one place where Linux excells and Microsoft needs to be kept out of with armed guards, constentino wire, and rabbid dogs it's the computing research centers in higher education. Scraping by to live and make post graduate tuition can suck, but having to fight for grant money that only lines the pockets of the richest man on the planet just so you can do your thesis is adding way too much insult to injury. For the sake of future scholars, show this salesweasle the door with the help of your foot.
*** Sigs are a stupid waste of bandwidth.
blah blah blah blah Linux cluster blah blah blah.
...Execute search MS - terms: cluster
Results: Microsoft Clustering, formally known as wolfpack.
...Execute talk: Yes...MS does clustering, what would it take to convince you to use ours.
I think if I was in the customer's position, I'd agree to it just to shove it back in their face when I ask how it distributes the computing load etc...of course that would be
blah blah blah computing load blah blah
...Execute search MS - terms: computing load
Fuzzy Logic Results: Microsoft Clustering, formally known as wolfpack. Use for load balancing.
that he says he "works for a mid-sized mid-western university" when his handle has a link to a Ball State University email address.
Just come out and say it.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
Actually... Chimps are a hell of alot more expensive.
You have to pay someone to clean the cage, and that person alone is going to get paid more than any CS student, probably more than 2 of them.
Never mind that chimps demand a much higher standard of living than students do.
-Steve
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
I can't see the sense in clustering Windows. The GUI and other parts of the system add a lot of unnecessary overhead. If MS wrote a clustering OS from the ground up, it'd be worth considering. Every job has it's tool, and IMHO Windows in it's current state is a hammer trying to remove a screw; use all the hammers you want, it won't get the screw any looser.
---
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Slashdot editors censor dissenters.
:)
hawk
Just curious, will a MS Cluster cause all of the machines to BSOD at the same time or will it be load balanced ;)
this article without the obligatory Beowulf comments?
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
This wouldn't have happened if they had thier servers clustered to handle the load-balancing issues.
my understanding is that an MS rep asked what it would take to get them to switch to a Microsoft cluster.
You've got a golden opportunity here! Microsoft does it your way or they don't get the sale.
Let them know the nature of a cluster in a research project. Nodes will be swapped in and out. New ones will be added. Different OSs will be used. So tell them you want a copy of Windows for each potential node, licensed to the University and not to any individual node. Tell them you need full rights to install, reinstall, and uninstall any particular copy on any particular node. Tell them you will not accept any terms restricting the cluster to Windows only.
If you really want to play hardball, tell them you don't even want licenses, but bonafide user-owned copies of Windows subject only to the provisions of copyright. In other words, you don't want to be subject to any EULA. Then you'll discover how much Microsoft wants your cluster to be a Windows cluster.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
I've clustered Windows boxes plenty of times. I leave them clustered in a corner of a dark closet. Unplugged.
A cluster of Windows would be a Glass House, and you know what they say about those.
The thing about things we don't know is we often don't know we don't know them.
I think you have to specifically install the "unstable" portion of Debian -- unlike Windows, it won't do that automatically.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
"Windows Cluster"...seems like there's a word missing...