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A New List For Clustering NetBSD

Posted by Hemos on from the collect-'em-together dept.

jschauma writes "The NetBSD Project has created a new mailing list, tech-cluster. As the name suggests, this list is intended for technical discussions on building and using clusters of NetBSD hosts. Initially, this list is expected to be of low volume, but we hope to advocate and advance the use of NetBSD in such environments significantly. Subscription is via majordomo -- please see this page for details."

5 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Oh good! by captainbonehead · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I can learn how to build a cluster out of all of those Timex data watches, palms, and toasters cluttering my basement ...

    1. Re:Oh good! by endx7 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Like they say, windows and NetBSD are toaster OSes.

      Windows turns your computer into a toaster.

      NetBSD turns your toaster into a computer.

  2. Multiple Platforms by agent+dero · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Something i'd like to figure out, while I don't run NetBSD personally, how viable it would be to run a cluster of various platforms, for example a couple of macPPC, x-86, and UltraSPARC computers running as a netBSD cluster.

    Would NetBSD be able to overcome these big platform differences?

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    Error 407 - No creative sig found
    1. Re:Multiple Platforms by Noryungi · · Score: 2, Informative

      how viable it would be to run a cluster of various platforms, for example a couple of macPPC, x-86, and UltraSPARC computers running as a netBSD cluster. Would NetBSD be able to overcome these big platform differences?

      Actually, yes. While I am not a specialist of NetBSD, it runs very well on all these machines -- I had a doubt about the UltraSPARC, then I read this.

      The only thing that would be slightly different between these platforms would be the installation procedure, and even that procedure is fairly standardized.

      Once the NetBSD system is installed ,everything should work exactly in the same way over all these platforms -- the only difference would be the device names and the name assigned to the network interfaces.

      Please note that this type of cluster has been attempted before and it seems to work very well, albeit much more slowly than a high-performance (all Opteron, for instance) cluster.

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      The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
    2. Re:Multiple Platforms by serial+frame · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For clarification, I believe he was insinuating that NetBSD already runs on those platforms. His question is, of course, will several machines of different processor types be able to share and distribute processor time? For the time being, that answer is, unfortunately, no. However, if we are talking storage clusters, then yeah, everything would work out just fine.

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      And the Angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots! The cries of the carrots!"