VL Clusters?

[ScruffyWin]

Hello all,

has any tried clustering VL Soho ?

cheers

Scruf

[ScruffyWin]

Yikes, it looks like I'm talking to myself again...

Maybe I should be more specific:
Self?
Yes?
Can we use VL conviently as the os of a homemade cluster to do some serious number crunching via RPC and tcp/ip based shared memory?
I don't know, maybe we could ask the VL forum?

[Kocil]

I'm experimenting it, using Mosix, running 2 hosts, each host is a dual Pentium pro machine.

However ... I got to changed quite a lot, including recompile the kernel and many cluster related packages.
Maybe it is easier to use Rock Linux

[ScruffyWin]

Thanks for the reply, Eco

Cool - You mention two of the things I was wondering about!  (I've not gotten my VL in the mail yet  but it's on its way ) Trying to get a head start on the problems.

I too have a couple of dual proc machines that I'd like to use - along with a couple more single processor dumpster-diver specials . 

1. In addition to rebuilding to include the cluster and MOSIX stuff, did you have to set any specific option to support dual processors - or do the install scripts notice them and set up accordingly?  (I did a search through all the VL forums, but didn't find much on multiple cpu's - one log file did have a line "CPU#0" .)

2. As the current VL is a 2.6.x.x, am I correct that you're trying MOSIX for Linux-2.6?
http://www.mosix.org/txt_grid.html


In case you'd like to know, here's what I'm working with:

http://www.linux-mag.com/id/2662/
http://www.emsl.pnl.gov/docs/global/

thanks for the assist!
ciao,
Scruf

[Joe1962]

Can't help on the cluster front, but I can say that the 5.8 kernels are multi-core and multi-processor ready.

[ScruffyWin]

Thanks, Joe

I'd like to understand this a bit more. Does the install recognize how many processors are available and select which modules to pull in accordingly (meaning, are there different kernel builds depending on cpu config)? Or is the kernel code the same regardless of core or processors, that is, is the kernel one big hummer that just checks what's available at startup, then deligate processes and threads accordingly?


cheers
Scruff

[easuter]

Yup the kernel handles the number of processors automatically, no nead to do anything yourself. IIRC, the default maximum number of CPUs that the kernel is compiled with is 32 CPUs, so you won't have any problem on that front!

[ScruffyWin]

32 cpus !

gads! man, this is like the desktop supercomputer thread...

Does anyone even make a single box with 32 cpus - much less a mother board with 32 cpus on it!

What a er, ahh, mother of a mother board!

[Joe1962]

32? I thought we were using 8 max.

[bigpaws]

For the machines Dell, Compaq, NEC, IBM to name a few.

The announcement of an algorithm for parallel processors
will make multiprocessing even more beneficial.

Bigpaws

[Kocil]

1. In addition to rebuilding to include the cluster and MOSIX stuff, did you have to set any specific option to support dual processors - or do the install scripts notice them and set up accordingly?  (I did a search through all the VL forums, but didn't find much on multiple cpu's - one log file did have a line "CPU#0" .)

Yes, I got to recompile the kernel to support SMP (symetric multiprocessor) for the dual processor machines.
As mentioned, VL 5.8 already supports it.
Unfortunatelly, you still have to recompile a new kernel specific for the mosix.

Note, for a single CPU machine, don't use SMP,
because SMP scheduling slowdowns a single CPU machine a bit.

2. As the current VL is a 2.6.x.x, am I correct that you're trying MOSIX for Linux-2.6?
http://www.mosix.org/txt_grid.html

Yes, I got to sent an email to the author (Prof Amnon Barak),
because MOSIX is not completelly an open source software.
Then he sent me MOSIX for a specific kernel (2.6.20 in my case).
Recently, I saw there is a new mosix for kernel 2.6.22.

Another option is openmosix, which is a fork of MOSIX.

[easuter]

32? I thought we were using 8 max.

Yeah, by bad: 8 CPUs is what VL uses, 32 is what a "vanilla" kernel configuration uses by default... 

[Joe1962]

Ah, ok. Thought it had been changed. When I did that kernel config a while back (and AFAIK it has been used since then, just updating for the newer things each version), I figured 8 would do as a desktop kernel for the lifespan of 5.8. Anyone who wants to set up a server with VL and more than 8 CPUs can certainly recompile a custom server kernel...