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Thread: Rocks Cluster Tutorial Part 1 The Install

  1. #11
    Talk nerdy to me nil8's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rocks Cluster Tutorial Part 1 The Install

    I'm placing my order this weekend and working on buying a couple more bitch boxes to play with. Mine are starting to show their age. At least 1 for the front end and my next attempt at immersion cooling eventually.

    As for the KVM cables, I need them anyway. I have a 4 port kvm and other uses for it at home.

    512mb ram min for everything is a but much isn't it?

    It's good to know that everything can be accessed via serial.
    How difficult will this really be? What I mean is roughly how many hours is it going to take to setup and get operating?

  2. #12
    Custom Title Honors chaksq's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rocks Cluster Tutorial Part 1 The Install

    Well using the systems I had planned on is not going to happen. I ended up upgrading one and using the other for parts.

    However I had an idea. Would it be possible to create a cluster using thin clients? They are fairly cheap used and very low power. Too qualities that appeal to me greatly.
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  3. #13
    Talk nerdy to me nil8's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rocks Cluster Tutorial Part 1 The Install

    Short answer:98% no

    Long answer:
    Thin clients are shells of machines that can locally load specific protocols designed to remote into servers, such as Citrix ICA or MS RDP.
    Beyond this and a couple of local features, there isn't anything to them.
    Their sole purpose in life is to bring a server session to your eyes and hands. They don't process (much) data and have extremely small amounts of ram. All that's needed is the stripped out OS. The common flavors consist of linux or Windows CE.

    Your best bet if you actually want lower power consumption and keeping a decent price range is 2nd gen sff machines. Around the 1.5ghz mark will serve you well and run you less than 50 a box. Thin clients can be more expensive than this, even 2nd hand because they're not common anymore.

  4. #14
    Yuk it up Monkey Boy! Airbozo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rocks Cluster Tutorial Part 1 The Install

    If it can boot linux, you can cluster it. You can even create diskless nodes (but I will not be getting into that). During the install all you have to do is replace the OS roll disks with your favorite linux distro (most all will work). I was talking to a friend who said they even made some systems that have linux on a chip into clusters. They had to go through the trouble of flashing new roms, but once they figured everything out it works fine. I think they are going to productize it soon.

    As far as the time to install, I will post some approximate times for each stage and each type of node (compute/visual, etc). It took me about an hour to install the frontend and less than that for each node (since you don't have to feed the slave nodes any cd's).
    "...Dumb all over, A little ugly on the side... "...Frank Zappa...

  5. #15
    Like a Lightning Bolt in Your Cheerios! Drum Thumper's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rocks Cluster Tutorial Part 1 The Install

    Quote Originally Posted by Airbozo View Post

    Compute Node (at least 1);
    motherboard
    processor (386 minimum)
    memory (minimum 512mb)
    Hard drive (20gb min)
    CD drive (dvd for the larger disks)
    1 network interface
    Power supply (to power all those jiggly bits)
    Video card (not really necessary since _most_ systems can use the serial port for a console)
    A 386 series processor who's mobo can handle 512 megs of ram? And a BIOS that old that will handle a 20 gig hard drive?

    I'm gonna have to google that, but I don't think that is feasibly possible.

    +rep for the thread--gives me an excuse to get more computers!
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  6. #16
    Yuk it up Monkey Boy! Airbozo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rocks Cluster Tutorial Part 1 The Install

    ...Almost done... Damn work... Keeping me from finishing this tutorial.

    I am tempted to take these systems home and finish there. (hehe the SO would kill me if I brought another computer in my house even if it is temporary. Yeah right, she's heard that before...)
    "...Dumb all over, A little ugly on the side... "...Frank Zappa...

  7. #17
    Talk nerdy to me nil8's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rocks Cluster Tutorial Part 1 The Install

    Patience is a virtue of IT. It will be, in time. Work on your list of stuff to do bozo. We're not going anywhere.

  8. #18
    Yuk it up Monkey Boy! Airbozo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rocks Cluster Tutorial Part 1 The Install

    Amazing! I actually have time to work on this! I am starting the install now and am trying to figure out how to take screen shots, otherwise I will just photograph the monitor.


    TT
    "...Dumb all over, A little ugly on the side... "...Frank Zappa...

  9. #19

    Default Re: Rocks Cluster Tutorial Part 1 The Install

    Quote Originally Posted by chaksq View Post
    Would it be a bad idea to have the frontend with worse specs than the nodes?

    ...

    F.Y.I. both the 6400s are running fresh installs of Ubunto Linux and the Essential needs to be reformated.
    Did you give up on this? It's really easy to get clustering working within Linux, from my post in this thread,
    if you follow the link to the microwulf cluster pages, the guy explains a slightly complex way of getting ubuntu to cluster.

    I'd have one of your high spec machines as the principal machine and any other machine you can lay your hands on as nodes. Also check out clusterknoppix - a linux clustering distro that can boot off the CD drive and have a cluster up and running quicker than I typed this post.

    CrazyB

    ps Mr AirBozo .... what happened to your Cluster? Life get in the way?

  10. #20
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    Default Re: Rocks Cluster Tutorial Part 1 The Install

    [QUOTE=Airbozo;84807]==NOTE== Please keep in mind that this is a work in progress, so if you see something that does not make sense, ASK QUESTIONS! Also if you see anything that is confusing and could be better written, please let me know. And if I have made some mistakes also let me know. I am still learning this stuff too. ==NOTE==


    This is the start of the Cluster Tutorial using Rocks Clusters Software;
    http://www.rocksclusters.org/

    This tutorial is based on the software from Rocksclusters.org. I will be refering to some of the documents on their site, so if you want to follow along, please point your browser to; http://www.rocksclusters.org/rocks-d...2.1/index.html. You can also download a pdf version of this document to view off line.

    Dear AirBozo
    I do not see any dates for these postings, so do not know how old this is. However, I do not see anything beyond the hardware/software requirements. I know that all of us are busy with our daily tasks to pay our bills, and you may not have had time to work on this for some time. Please let me know. I plan on installing a rocks cluster this week, and can provide help with your writeup if needed.

    I do appreciate the link to the docmentation which is helpful, but I could not find a pdf version of this, and as I saw this as I was getting ready to board a flight, I could not read it on flight. However, will pick this up when I land and as I have time

    Thanks
    Neeraj

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