Re: possibilty of clustering in a single box
Quote:
Originally posted here by mnchur
hey, i was just wondering what you guys though of the possiblity of clustering several comps into a single box?
i want to use this comp not only for a server but as a personal comp as well i already have a few 386 available. i was just looking to this as a cheap alternitive to buying a server (wich i most certainly dont have the money for). i want to run an ftp and a webserve off of these boxes; the reason i want to cluster is alone no one of them have to power to handle this kind of work ( i dont think).
q: do you think this is a practical answer to my problem ?
q: would any of you say that this would be even worth doing? or would i be better off just getting some server space somewhere (i am trying to avoid this because of money issues).
q: should i put these seperate comps into a single box? i do have limited space but do you think the cooling of this box would just take up more space than the boxes do now ?
q: would i have to build a special case or is there a company that offers oversize cases for this purpose?
If you guys have any other suguestions of things i could do they would be most welcome
using MS advanced server for clustering, you can only create a 2 node cluster, (you can have multiple node on a windows data center OS).
Clustering is not about putting multiple hardware on a single case/box, it's about making multiple PC's to act as a single machine that provides high availability for a client connection.
Cluster solution is not a feasible solution if you're tight on a budget coz you have to have 2 completely built PCs , 2 SCSI controllers, 4 NICs, at least 4 SCSI hdd's and a SSD to house the HDD's and of course 2 licenses for win2k advanced server which we all know costs a lot... now with regards to your 386 machines, the question is wether they can support this win2k advanced sever (or let me say Linux advanced server, if you prefer linux, sorry i don't have enuf knowledge abt linux :) ) and also wether they can support the SCSI controller for your SSD's and i think current PCI SCSI controllers can't be supported by a 386 machine.
to answer your questions:
q: do you think this is a practical answer to my problem ? - no it's not, it's the most expensive answer to your needs
q: would any of you say that this would be even worth doing? or would i be better off just getting some server space somewhere (i am trying to avoid this because of money issues). - it's cheaper to have your page hosted, more cheaper and less trouble some, you'll have to leave everything to the company that hosts your site like maintenence, security availability etc, if you'll host it on you're own you have to buy the neccessary equipments and at the same time pay for your domain name.
q: should i put these seperate comps into a single box? i do have limited space but do you think the cooling of this box would just take up more space than the boxes do now ? think of this...you need a customized case that have multiple power supply to attach to your diff mobo's, or lemme say stack your pc and tie it in a bundle, that is how it'll look like. no need to cool a 386, it doest generate that much heat, try using AMD XP 2000 and above processors, you'll know what i mean.
q: would i have to build a special case or is there a company that offers oversize cases for this purpose? haven't heared of them
i think the best way for you is to have your site hosted, or if you want, buy a mid range pc, use linux (they come with software that suits your needs) or use windows 2000 server, comes with IIS to host your site, have an ftp server and at the same time a machine for you to tinker around, now, the question of high availability can be answered by clustering.
I hope this helps :)
Re: possibilty of clustering in a single box
Quote:
Originally posted here by mnchur
[B]hey, i was just wondering what you guys though of the possiblity of clustering several comps into a single box?
i want to use this comp not only for a server but as a personal comp as well i already have a few 386 available. i was just looking to this as a cheap alternitive to buying a server (wich i most certainly dont have the money for). i want to run an ftp and a webserve off of these boxes; the reason i want to cluster is alone no one of them have to power to handle this kind of work ( i dont think).
I wonder quite why you would want to do this.
M$ Clustering: Only works on certain cluster-aware applications (Mostly MSSQL Server). Requires very very expensive M$ Windows Advanced server licences, which will massively dwarf the cost of even very powerful brand new machines. This makes it unsuitable for clustering old boxes.
Other types of clustering:
There is something called "Single system image" (M$ does not have single system images in its clustering), which makes >1 machine appear exactly as one machine.
Not very much clustering software does single system image, because it is very tricky.
Mosix or OpenMosix is however a single system image cluster.
BUT it is very bad for applications like web servers etc, as they require a lot of networking.
As far as I'm aware, there isn't any practical way of doing what you intend.
Slarty