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Mandrake Announces Turn-Key Clustering Distribution

Posted by timothy on from the clic-and-run dept.

joestar writes "According to their website, Mandrake and partners (Bull, INPG/INRIA...) have launched an 'easy-to-deploy easy-to-use Linux Clustering solution,' that has already been tested on a 40-node cluster. Of course, it's published under the GPL, comes with parallel applications, and is available for download as an ISO. It seems the project is financed by French government. It's great because I've always dreamed of having my own supercomputer at home."

11 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. No SCSI by gorillasoft · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hardware restrictions

    A fast ethernet network switch

    NO SCSI drives in nodes

    A PXE bootable network card (intel / 3com)

    A 3D accelerated video card for the virtual reality 3D engine

    Seems a bit limiting - no SCSI drives?

    1. Re:No SCSI by benploni · · Score: 5, Informative

      You've obviously never built a real computational cluster. Real cluster nodes are better off not having any drives at *all*, as they are the only moving part in the mix. It boots PXE, loads a kernel, and nfs mounts root.

    2. Re:No SCSI by imann · · Score: 4, Informative

      i'm following this project, and the SCSI port is running and will be available soon :-)

    3. Re:No SCSI by bm_luethke · · Score: 3, Informative

      well then use OSCAR from here. It supports mandrake (and redhat) and scsi has the tools listed for CLIC, tested up to 128 nodes, doesn't require PXE card (though I would have to say a network switch is kinda needed for networking :) ). Has a fairly large base and good developer base.

      --
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  2. home clusters by clymere · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm helping to adminstrate a cluster here in Youngstown, Ohio thats partially funded by the Ohio Supercomputer Center. As a result of the few things I've picked up, I've gotten it into my head that I'm building a P1 cluster of my own, at home, over the summer. One of the OSC guys has a small(4-5 machines) P2 cluster in his office...its really not extremely difficult...except that I'm using P1's(cause i can get them for far less money). OSC has fairly well automated the install process for anything 686 and above. Using 586's means having to do most things manually. And before someone points it out, yes i'm aware i'm not gonna get a whole lotta power here...i'm doing it as a learning experience, right now noone is going to let me serup a cluster all on my own, so this is the best way for me to learn it i think. Incidentally, one of the things i want to try next is getting GUI desktop-type programs to distribute across my P1 cluster. The idea is to take all of these old systems, and get comparable functionality out of them as you get from your typical desktop computer. I really hare seeing how many systems end up tossed in the trash, i feel like something like this could prove helpful in eliminating some waste. Of course it could also just be a lot of hard work for nothing. Guess i'll find out this summer!

    --
    once you go slack, you never go back
  3. Re:whoa! the speed the power!! by KeyserDK · · Score: 2, Informative

    mdk got the apt-get thing too.

    The tool is urpmi and the equivalent to debian unstable is cooker.

    Other interesting sources is contribs (unsuported contributions) and plf (stuff with legal issues to be official mdk packages).

    Dont compare apt-get to rpms. Compare debs to rpms.

    --
    still reading?
  4. Urpmi parallel by imann · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm on the mailing list of this project and there was a parallel feature for urpmi that really rox !

    This tool allow people to deploy RPMS to a group of linux hosts using an intelligent parallel copy.

    How does it works:
    You create a group of hosts so the server can ask the nodes (using urpmi) to prepare for an update/install of packages.
    Each computer tell the server the packages it needs then the server copy in parallel (using ka-tools) the rpms on the nodes (that's very fast even for a hudge number of nodes).After that, nodes update their system using local rpms !
    This feature seems to be designed for clusters but should be used by admins !

    Another point of comparaison between urpmi & apt-get

  5. Re:What kind of cluster? by Havokmon · · Score: 5, Informative
    When I think of clusters, I think of the active-passive Win2K database server we have at our co-location facility. It requires special cluster-aware hardware (e.g. the disk array) and cluster aware software (e.g. Win2K AS, SQL Server). I get the impression from people's comments that this is a different type of cluster. Rather than being about high availability, it is about massive parallel computing. Is this a correct assessment?

    Right. Netware 6 has kick-ass "clustering" that allows a Server to go down, and a 2nd server to beome your file server. You can stream a video (from FILE), down a server, and after a second, your stream will continue - from the 2nd server.

    Most of us call that failover, but Microsoft and Novell are calling it clustering.

    --
    "I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
  6. NOPE! by bhsx · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mandrake is compiled for i586, so you're gonna have to at least drop a pentium in to those old mobos...

    --
    put the what in the where?
  7. urpmi is your friend by InodoroPereyra · · Score: 3, Informative
    My only complaint is they are an RPM-based distro and I like apt-get.

    From the command line, urpmi will give you similar functionality (mainly deal with the dependencies for you). And even nicer, the GUI for Software Management in MandrakeControlCenter is just beautifull. Really painless software management, as long as you install software from the installation CDs or urpmi-aware repositories. Security updates are just a few clicks away and you get to see the advisories and decide what you want to install and what you don't. When installing from CD's you are prompted to insert the CD's in the order they are needed. You can search for packages (in names, files and descriptions). I NEVER had any problems, never had to manually solve dependencies (with ML 9.0). It works like a charm ...

  8. RedHat + OpenMosix rpms... by teaserX · · Score: 3, Informative
    This seems pretty easy to me. Add the follwing to your RedHat distro, a little scripting, a little autorun info and you got it (for your hardware at least).
    You will need:
    Then:
    1. Install RedHat
    2. Install openMosix rpms
    3. Install kernel source to /usr/src/linux and patch with openMosix-2.4.18-4.gz
    4. Compile and install openMosixUserland-0.2.4
    5. Configure /etc/openmosix.map
    6. Reboot new openMosix kernel
    7. setpe -W -f /etc/openmosix.map
      on each node
    9. ...and you're clusterin'
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