Request for Cluster Recommendations

[Andy Sporner]

Hi Michael,

I am going to presume you mean a compute cluster
(there are other types) based on the context of your 
message.

I work for a company that makes network switches and
we have seen best case where a server that is doing
for instance a firewall application can do a maximum
of about 30% of a gigabit.  As this is more network
centric rather than compute centric, I would expect
that your utilitization would be lower than this.

For 4 nodes I would think a standard gigabit switch
would be enough.  Managed allows you to have vlans,
which doesn't seem to be requisite in your 
application.

Additionally, haveing a separate network for the
other traffic seems more trouble than it's worth.

If you want reliability, and can find a bonding 
ethernet driver, than I would suggest creating a
Adapter fault tolerance virtual adaptor and then
use 2 gigabit adapters on the server and send them
through two separate switches.

I have looked in the last months for such a driver
on Freebsd without luck.  There was in times past
an FEC driver.  But all reports show that it is 
unstable.  I have tried it anyways and can confirm
that it is in fact.. unstable.  There is a one to
many configuration in netgraph that might however
be usable.

As for the software, somebody else will have to
speak up.  I only work on HA (and later Mosix) type 
clustering for network application scalablity, 
rather than compute farms.

I would suggest if Ronald Milch is still listening
that he would be the perfect answer man for your 
needs as this is his strong area.

Best wishes for your project...



Andy


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