makings of a junk yard cluster ??

[Andrew P.]

On 11/15/05, Arden <arden at nildram.co.uk> wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Nov 2005 18:46:02 +0300
> "Andrew P." <infofarmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On 11/15/05, Arden <arden at nildram.co.uk> wrote:
> > > Hi Folk
> > >
> > > like most people involved in IT you tend to build you a "junk yard"
> > > of redundant machines
> > >
> > > Ive just been through mine and found could at a push make 5 x86 PCs
> > >
> > > 2x amd 400mhz
> > > 2x via 700mhz
> > > 1x amd duron 1200
> > >
> > > also have lots of spare nic cards
> > >
> > > Ive never looked at clusters before and this is just for fun (must
> > > have way to much time on my hands) :)
> > >
> > > So I need to know would it be possible to build a cluster from
> > > these ? I'm not sure if the nodes need to be matched in any way ?
> > >
> > > dose anyone know where to find an idiots to setting one up ?
> > >
> > > also what would the equivelent power be i.e would i just be making a
> > > 1gig space heater ?
> >
> > It's hard to tell for sure, but one AMD 3000+ should
> > eat them all for lunch. So there's no practical interest
> > in it. But you can learn much from using all these
> > machines together.
> >
> > First, do you need a real-deal cluster with MPI and
> > other industrial protocols? If I were you, I'd call these
> > machines a farm, and would first try some fail-over
> > mechanisms (routing, http, dns, ipsec). We usually
> > get to test fail-over using virtual pc's. Real boxes
> > are somewhat harder to manage, but they are real,
> > and the experience you get is a real hands-on
> > "encounter".
> >
> > Then, some distributed jobs would be fun. I use
> > distcc to compile many large pieces of software.
> > Try it. Then you can try running something like
> > dnetc or boinc and compare the results your
> > farm produce to those your desktop shows.
> >
> > If you have a lot of NIC's, populate the boxes with
> > all of them. Install FreeBSD everywhere and you
> > can emulate _very_ complicated environments with
> > vlans, trunks, OSPF, BGP and what not. Then go
> > and get your CCIE.
> >
> > <...>
> >
> > Take care!
>
> thanks
>
> I'm going to try and make a start on on the installs for this project
> this evening what version of freebsd would be best to use would the
> latest really be the greatest ?

I'd use 6-stable or even 7-current.