Red Hat HPC Linux Cometh

Slatterz writes "Red Hat will announce its first high-performance computing optimised distro, Red Hat HPC, on 7 October. The distro is a step forward from the current Red Hat Enterprise Linux for HPC Compute Nodes. A part of the new distro is, by the way, created by a small Project Kusu team in Singapore. Kusu is the foundation for Platform Open Cluster Stack (OCS) which is an integral feature of Red Hat HPC. It might be sign of things to come, as more of hardware and software development moves to the Far East — even top-of-the-line computing performance."

Comments

The question is

[giantweevil]

Will Fedora get any of this functionality?

Judging by the current state of Fedora/Red Hat affairs, I think it's a valid question.

Re:The question is

[AndyFewt]

I expect Centos will get it if Fedora don't. After all, Centos are just wholesale copies of RedHat Enterprise with the Redhat name removed (per RH's requirements)

Re:The question is

[PornMaster]

But is everything they're selling with this new offering GPL?

Re:The question is

[crush]

Well, their documentation states that it works with Fedora Core 6 and Centos-5. I'd be very surprised if it didn't work with current Fedora (which will be Fedora 10 any day now).

Re:The question is

[AndyFewt]

I guess we will have to wait and see. I expect most will be GPL but they might have a cluster management tool or something which will be how they justify the fees. Alternatively it might all be GPL'd but they'll make the money off support.

Re:The question is

[ShawnX]

Well, the code I wrote in it, is GPLv2. The core bits are GPLv2

-- Disclaimer, I work for Platform Computing.

Re:The question is

[ShawnX]

It doesn't work for Fedora 7+, not yet.

Re:The question is

[ShawnX]

It's possible, more info to come ;)

Just imagine...

[Mad Merlin]

A beowulf cluster of these!

Re:Just imagine...

[Tubal-Cain]

Don't you mean "High-Performance Beowulf Cluster"?

Re:Just imagine...

[ScrewMaster]

Don't you mean "High-Performance Beowulf Cluster"?

Is there such a thing as a "Low-Performance Beowulf Cluster"?

Re:Just imagine...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, yes - and many people in the HPC field refer to them as 'IT clusters'. Basically, while designing a good cluster isn't tremendously difficult, it isn't a given either.

Re:Just imagine...

[Tubal-Cain]

High-Availability?

Suprised this story made it here

[pembo13]

Others places I have seen it posted, few people ever commented on |voted up it. Don't know why people hate on one of the Linux "bread winners".

Re:Suprised this story made it here

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot has editors who occasionally select interesting stories that are insufficiently sensationalist make it on vote-based sites like Digg.

And that's A Good Thing.

Re:Suprised this story made it here

[Anonymous Coward]

You know what?

I AM GLAD TO SEE THAT LINUX IS MAKING/TAKING THIS LEAP, & probably will do well @ it!

DISCLAIMER: AND, the main thing is? Heck - I have to be one of the BIGGEST "Pro-Windows/Pro-Microsoft" posters around on this site...

( & guys like myself (Pro-MS/Pro-Windows folks)? We ARE, w/out question, the MINORITY here (/. = "the home of the Pro-*NIX crew online" imo, & yes, years of experience posting here))...

---

NOW - What I don't like/am not "crazy about" here, as regards this article?

Is that U.S. jobs, EVEN IN OPEN SOURCE, for Pete's sake... even those are moving overseas... wtf!

(What upset me, is @ this article's termination?? Well, it makes things sound as if WE lack the skills & talent here for this! That's CRAP!)

In the U.S., We DEFINITELY have the talent & skills required, no questions asked!

However, our "FINE" business & political leaders really have TRULY "souled out" (misspelling IS intentional) &, the result of which are showing in the political & financial fiascos present, as well as outsourcing MIS/IS/IT jobs, to verify this, for me (without ME even SAYING IT)!

Still - this IS what you get: RUIN!

See, when you hire on "the best money TRULY CAN BUY", such as our "politikal leaders in KORPORATE AMERIKA"... mainly the republican SCUM, & unqualified MBA 'fratboys' who have NEVER EVEN DONE THE JOB THEMSELVES HANDS-ON FOR YEARS TO DECADES IN THE TRENCHES FOR OUR MGT. LEADERS... especially to lead people like us, in developers/techs/admins - how the HELL can someone like that, lead people like us, & make effective decisions?

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAID FOR: RUIN!

Sure - the "MBA FRATBOYS" rely on the old 'mantra':

"I don't need to know what to do, I will hire someone who does!"

Spelled sideways meaning "I will throw money @ it, it's not MY MONEY, it'st his companies & just to cover my incompetent & unqualified ass!"

& a question:

What IF said newly hired advisor (hired by a boob that hasn't even done the job himself no less) makes a mistake OR advises incorrectly?

IT COSTS MILLIONS!

APK

P.S.=> Fact is? This nation is headed by such an incompetent: One that's RUINED anything & everything he ever laid his hands on...

OR

Is the film "Fahrenheit 911" lying? I don't think so...

Another "politically connected rich boy" has a great job, because he is connected via his father, & not because of his trackrecord (as well as rigged elections).

This nation?? It had BETTER WAKE THE "F" UP, soon... apk

Re:Suprised this story made it here

[watice]

surprised as well. slashdot is usually a redhat basher. what gives with the break in tradition?!

Re:Suprised this story made it here

[Anonymous Coward]

RH HPC wasn't just designed/developed in Asia. It is a collaborative effort. Actually a lot of the software came from Platform computing - a Canadian company (not sure if that article said that but others have). And the software that builds and manages the cluster is here: http://ocssrc.platform.com (well that is the source repo - not the binaries.

So...don't be so quick to conclude from a crappy 'press article' that developers in North America (US and Canada) don't have the chops to build this stuff...fact is the team(s) are located in Toronto and Singapore.

Re:Suprised this story made it here

[Kjella]

I would think what happened with Red Hat Linux is the main reason. Up until 2003 or so, Red Hat had two main products - Red Hat Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. RHEL was basicly the same as you know now, while Red Hat Linux was the popular distro of its day much like Ubuntu is to many today and it could be downloaded freely. I used it myself and it was a very high quality product that really helped give Red Hat mindshare as the best, most stable linux distro and gained it a foothold in the enterprise. So why don't you hear of it today? Well, long story short RHEL had enough merits in the enterprise market to stand on its own, and RHL was discontinued for business reasons so that anyone that wanted a Red Hat logo had to pay for it.

Instead they formed Fedora which was a community distro / test bed for RHEL. With all due respect to Fedora, it wasn't anywhere near RHL in quality and after that many left to other distros, including myself. Maybe it was that Red Hat fans were annoyed they couldn't run "Red Hat" anymore. Maybe some saw it as a money grab, trying to make everyone that wanted a "real" distro pay. Maybe some thought Red Hat had simply used them, then thrown them away when they weren't needed. Maybe some were just disappointed by the high promises of how Fedora would be almost like RHL. Maybe some didn't take being told they're not that important very well. Whatever the reason, that's when they stopped being "cool".

There was also a noticable shift in where their focus was. When they were developing RHL they also focused a lot more on the desktop (not that everyone was happy with it though), I'm sure some remember the Bluecurve theme and many other interesting things. Since they went enterprise-only there has been a much greater focus on the kernel and the backend - I still think Red Hat is one of the biggest if not the biggest contributors to the kernel, not that much on the desktop experience. In short, they do what cater to their market and focus on their market which is good for them, but it's not like I manage to get excited on their market's behalf. I'm excited about the distros that help my needs, and RHEL isn't it. They went for the low volume/high profit market, that's not how you win a popularity contest, particularly not a Digg one (that's what you meant, right?).

Re:Suprised this story made it here

[gbjbaanb]

if you consider how many other companies use the 'server' distro that is RHEL, it really has been the right business decision to make. Think Oracle and VMware ship RHEL-based systems.

Personally, I always go for CentOS when specifying a server linux distro. I wouldn't use it for a desktop (ubuntu gets that prize). I think its a good thing they specialise in this way.

Re:Suprised this story made it here

[Anonymous Coward]

Boy look at that. Someone got modded down and doubtless by republicans here who, as per usual, didn't even reply justifying why the initial poster was modded down, and all because they were wrong stating the modded down poster said things he clearly didn't. How typical in modding someone down for being correct at slashdot seems to be in fashion nowadays.

Re:Suprised this story made it here

[Anonymous Coward]

Congratulations on getting a rise out of the republican party's band of stooges, sycophants, and yes-man cronies. The mod down clearly did not come from a democrat. however, "trickle down theory", "voodoo economics", outsourcing, and the "service economy" have come from republicans, which led to an economically faltering USA. They're such good judges of things aren't they? Especially economics. Just look at their results.

This has been shipping for years..

[Anonymous Coward]

it's called NPACI Rocks..

Re:This has been shipping for years..

[ShawnX]

Uh no, it's not NPACI Rocks, not even close.

Enterprise edition

[gzipped_tar]

This distro seems to be based on the RHEL distro. I wonder when shall we have a CentOS-like, free as in free beer redistribution of it.

OCS and Kusu

[ShawnX]

As one of the core developers of OCS,

The source for the Red Hat HPC code can be found at http://ocssrc.platform.com you can check it out with SVN but please be nice on our server :-)

I should probably update the wiki

Shawn.

Other projects?

[Junta]

What are your thoughts on OCS and its relation to other cluster oriented projects? i.e. Rocks, Oscar, xCAT, etc.

Re:Other projects?

[ShawnX]

Well, each one is trying to make it easier for people to deploy clusters on a massive scale. They each have their own approaches. We try to leverage the OS as much as possible using its components. Of course, we want ours to be a true Open Source clustering solution.

Share the love

[Yfrwlf]

If you have found ways to make things "high performance", you should certainly share that with the kernel devs and others who are involved with the software you've changed. All the rest of us would like a faster system too. ^^

Of course, we'd install a DE if we were using it as our desktops, which would slow things down again a bit I'm sure, but if there are any rudimentary improvements those should definitely be shared with everyone upstream.

What's Missing?

[bill_mcgonigle]

Instead they formed Fedora which was a community distro / test bed for RHEL. With all due respect to Fedora, it wasn't anywhere near RHL in quality and after that many left to other distros, including myself.

There were two competing camps for Redhat Linux - those who wanted free-'n-stable and those who wanted 'new hotness'. So, they let Fedora have the new hotness (which benefits their business eventually) and let Whitebox, then CentOS do free-'n-stable, making RHEL as easy to skin as possible for them. RedHat (the company) still takes bug reports against CentOS and Fedora, and pays their developers to work on Fedora, even EPEL for Centos/RHEL.

I'm not sure what you're actually looking for that's not there.

RHEL base?

[bill_mcgonigle]

Do you guys use the RHEL base or replace performance critical components? I've been using Gentoo for performance-sensitive applications and have benchmarked about 40% gains over the RHEL stock distro, at least with the hardware I'm using. I love RHEL for general purpose work as its pre-made binaries are fabulously easy to work with, but I wouldn't have expected folks do HPC work with it.

Re:RHEL base?

[ShawnX]

We certainly do some optimizations for HPC but base is still RHEL.