Re: [Nolug] Beowulf Cluster and Thin Clients

My understanding of a Beowulf cluster is that you have to have
software written specifically for a "cluster".
So, i don't think you can just run any software program on a Beowulf
cluster and it will go out and use all the nodes.
>From the wiki article:
"There is no particular piece of software that defines a cluster as a
Beowulf. Commonly used parallel processing libraries include Message
Passing Interface (MPI) and Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM). Both of
these permit the programmer to divide a task among a group of
networked computers, and collect the results of processing. Examples
of MPI software include OpenMPI (OpenMPI) or MPICH (MPICH). There are
additional MPI implementations available."

You can potentially make those $1000 desktops serve up 2-4 Terminals
(on thin clients) but that may be more
trouble than it's worth. Part of the problem with the whole "Thin
client" is that they're not that cheap.
You're talking $200-$400 a piece. When you can buy a usable dell for
$200-$400 new or used.

I'm not sure how you would spread ltsp over a cluster.
I have setup ltsp, we used one server to host a web browser only
desktop for 20-40 clients.
As I recall it worked pretty well.

I would think that getting a beowulf cluster of LTSP nodes would be a
real pita.
however, after googling "beowulf ltsp" people have asked the question before.
Here is the middle of a thread on another lug list:
http://www.dcglug.org.uk/archive/2008/06/msg00116.html

good luck!
let us know how it goes!
bb

On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 2:49 PM, Clint Billedeaux <clint@fastbadge.com> wrote:
> Awesome...well I don't hear anyone saying they know for fact it won't work.
>  In fact, in my ignorance, I think I heard that it's a stupid idea unless
> the machines are doing nothing anyway.
> And yes, the idea is to eventually move the operation into rack mounted
> blades with network storage.  I just want to stop this retarded idea that
> you have to buy a brand new $1000 computer everytime one of your towers goes
> down just so someone can run the software we do.
>
> On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 10:42 AM, Joey Kelly <joey@joeykelly.net> wrote:
>>
>> On 4/22/2011 10:21 AM, Ron Johnson wrote:
>>>
>>> A computational cluster (of which Beowulf is the most popular form)
>>> typically has a "controller" (with lots of disk space) and the compute nodes
>>> which are typically blades or 1-2U rack mounted machines w/ fast CPUs and
>>> lots of RAM but not much disk space.  There's no reason, though, why an
>>> organization's desktop computers couldn't be dual-purposed as compute nodes.
>>>
>>
>> I tried to talk my boss at The Company I'm Ashamed To Admit Having Worked
>> For into doing just that. We had a hundred desktops sitting idle all night
>> and I had this big plan of selling compute cycles.
>>
>> --Joey
>>
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>

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