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ClusterKnoppix
chronicon writes "Knoppix is the ultimate live CD. No geek-kit should be without it. Now Wim Vandersmissen has taken it a step futher by adding openMosix functionality. Drop the clusterKnoppix CD in your "server", boot up... boot up some networked clients... Knoppix built in LTSP magic kicks in and ta-da--instant cluster!"
I found out about OpenMosix recently, and I'd been looking for an excuse to test it out. This just makes it even easier.
I'm wondering how difficult it is to setup. Is it as easy as the poster made it sound?
All I have to say is.. <voice actor="nelson">Ha ha!</voice>
Well, think of an environment where you have boxen sitting around unused part of the time, and want to be able to plug and unplug cluster components dynamically and not have any persistent data stored on the part time cluster members, Possibly even using them for windows and word processing during the day and cracking the xbox key at night.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
I wasnt trying to be funny I'm actually going to do this! It takes about 14 hours on a single windows machine right now (1Ghz AMDs). If I get 30 machines it should take little over half an hour to do a single movie. woo hoo
There is no god
"OpenMosixKnoppix didn't quite sound good, so I called it ClusterKnoppix ;)"
I would have chosen Kloppix...the "l" for cluster, the rest is self-explanitory.
What is the minimum hardware needed to support this? Obviously a NIC, but can it run diskless (no HDD or CD)?
:-)
That suddenly makes for a VERY cheap grid node. (Didn't want to use the "B" word
What applications can I run right away if I burn a bunch of these and boot up a few of the machines on my network? Do I have to configure IP addresses? Does it assume I have DHCP installed? Which Linux programs will automatically benefit from the cluster?
How about a non-copyright-infringing make-your-own-torrent web site? I'm sure it wouldn't get the bandwidth load that the other torrent sites. Then random people on slashdot could actually just do this themselves and post a comment with a torrent link.
Mad Software: Rantings on Developing So
Linux must stop trying to be like Windows. The lack of Unix sysadmins that made dumbed-down Windows NT the choice for small businesses in the mid-90s is no longer a problem, and companies need only worry about functionality rather than whether their sysadmin is competent enough to set up by any other method than point-and-click (or fit-and-forget).
Linux's enterprise respectability (and I mean real enterprise, not 20-employee small office) would come from "innovating" from such systems as VMS, not Windows.
"openMosix terminal server" - uses PXE, DHCP and tftp to boot linux clients via the network. No CDrom drive/harddisk/floppy needed for the clients
How do the clients work if no CDrom/HD/Floppy is needed? I am trying to wrap my brain around this one. I get the cluster server idea, but then does the server determine which clients on the network will boot into the cluster? Is it via DHCP? Doesn't there need to be *something* on the client side like a HD/floppy/CDrom so it can boot?
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Do yo have an encoding program that will actaully break up the encoding to work on multiple CPUs? If not, you'll gain nothing.
Mosix works like a big SMP box, no special code is required, so you just fork and forget.
-- I speak only for myself.
well I do actually.... GNU/Vidomi
There is no god
Linux Magazine just did a three-article bonanza on how Beowulf clusters came about, and the costs and issues involved with running one.
This could blow all of that away; Just insert the CD in all of the machines in your office, and let fly. Air conditioning? Already accounted for. Power consumption? Not much more than usual. Floorspace? Just a little under everyone's desk.
What I'd like to see would be companies switching over to all-Linux or mostly-Linux shops, running all their machines as an OpenMosix cluster. They could sell off their spare CPU cycles, quite easily. Ironically, IT's never been so cheap.
What's this Submit thingy do?
I would propose the moniker "Cloppix"
Brings to mind images of a certain powerful one eyed giant...
My poetry site welcomes the unusual.
has replaced tomsrtbt as my rescue tool of choice.
..... what these people have managed to pull off is fantastic.
It probably would have done so even if any of my latest machines had a floppy drive
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
instead of the ethernet ROM?
If you set this up correctly all the computers that you boot up with this become a mosix cluster? Then all the users are terminals off of this cluster?
So all of the users have some of all of the power of the Mosix cluster?
This could be very very cool. Imagine a whole campus of users running this. Each user would have access to a super computer.
I just wonder how well mosix handles nodes dropping off and back on again. Plus how well will can is scale? Could you have five hundred or a thousand systems off in the cluster. Where is Mr. Barr when you need him?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I'm an MCSE running all MSFT...
sorry to hear that. but really, it isn't "what can i do with this", it is simply, "i can do this". it's like an education, what you do with it is your business, but you have an education and you are able to do so much more. and in fact, try to do this with your msft boxes. it can't be done. because they tell you what you can and can't do. period.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Did you boot the client workstations over the network (Using PXE or something similar?) or did you boot both the clients and the server from CD? (The story mentioned the LTSP
I'm curious about how difficult it is to boot clients over the network.
- http://www.braveterry.com/
What we really need is an HTTP torrent-like technology, so when you hit a site that's being slashdotted, you transparently download it from everybody else who's there.
That sure puts IBM's e-business on demand to shame.
The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
Mosix works like a big SMP box, no special code is required, so you just fork and forget.
I can see that that would be extremely cool for processing, but (and excuse my ignorance here), how does this apply to things like network servers? Can I install apache on it and get the benefits of multiple servers without having to do any special configuration? What about database servers?
You ain't from around these parts, are you? :-)
In all seriousness though, I do think that your MCSE and your Windows environment is limiting you here. I actually think the MCSE should be changed to CMSE, because you are a Certified Microsoft System Engineer. You are taught how to admin Microsoft systems only. It's OK, those are necessary things. But the problem is that you have been taught how to think in a "Microsoft world". There is a lot outside that world. Clustered computing is one of them. A bootable distro (ala Knoppix and others) is another.
I am sure when the bootable floppy distro came out, the MCSE's cried "what would I do with THAT?". Then CDRWs came about, and the bootable floppy turned into the bootable CD distro. The MS crowd said "Neat. Big deal." That has now turned into a bootable cluster server. Who knows where it might go from here. At some point, someone at Microsoft will say(or has already said) "Hey, that is cool. Can we do that?". They will try to buy the technology, and will find it can't be done. And they will try to build it from scratch, and there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
I think it was Louis Armstrong, who when asked what Jazz is, said "Man, if you gotta ask, you'll never know." I am afraid that applies here.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.