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Thread: linux cluster

  1. #1
    Junior Member
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    linux cluster

    i want to set up a linux cluster to run a web server. I want to set up ten diskless 486 nodes with 66 mhz chips and wake on lan 10 mbit/sec network cards. running mosix ofcourse. This will all be hooked up to my broadband connection.

    The server will be a 400 mhz or something similar with a 20 gb or so HD. Do you think it this cluster setup will be suitible for my personal webserver?

    Im really just interested in doing this as a fun project.

    Also, as a webserver do you think it will be faster if i bother using 10/100 ethernet cards?

  2. #2
    Senior Member
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    Re: linux cluster

    Originally posted here by pinkpanther

    The server will be a 400 mhz or something similar with a 20 gb or so HD. Do you think it this cluster setup will be suitible for my personal webserver?
    I'm sure that for a webserver, that it will be more than sufficient. Especially if it's just a personal server. That cluster does sound like a fun project, but the power you'll get from all those 386 boxes sounds like the equivilent of a modern pc.


    Thanks,
    PuRe
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  3. #3
    Senior since the 3 dot era
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    Your 80486 nodes will be ok, but I would prefer 10/100 Ethernet cards, cause to run OpenMosix and do more then only play with it as a fun project, your 10Mbit ethernet will be the bottleneck. Anyway you can run it with 10Mbit connections, however 100 or 200 with a switch and full duplex mode would be a huge improvement for your cluster.
    see the thread I made about OpenMosix:
    http://www.antionline.com/showthread...ight=OpenMosix

    Some physical things to keep in mind when running your cluster:

    - Make sure all your boxes remain accessible, I mean when running the cluster it's not very handy when one box goes down (let's say the PSU dies) and you have to shutdown others cause you have to replace those to alter the faulty box... so think about the placing of your boxes.
    - Running several (even low spec) boxes can generate a lot of hot air, so if you are going to run let's say 10 of such a things make sure you have some kind of ventilation
    or the room isn't to small.

    Next -> you are talking about a cluster with Mosix, probably you are going to choose OpenMosix? Well I don't think you will get lot's of advantage from your cluster concerning for instance a webserver like Apache. Apache is not going to profit from your SMP architecture. However some processes maybe will be migrated to other idle nodes. Are you going to include the 400Mhz into the cluster to? Or only the 10 80486 / 66Mhz boxes?

    Anyway have fun with your cluster.

  4. #4
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    The 400 mhz comp will be a DHCP server and a NFS server aswell as some other things. as the 486's will be diskless becuase i dont want to have to find 10 small HD's for the 486's and the old drives would be slow i think. Accessing the newer HD over ethernet would probally be faster. I think im going to go with 10/100 ethernet cards i think. Does anyone know of a good online supplier that sells somewhat good ISA 10/100 cards that have wake on lan chips? Can anyone recommend a good brand of 10/100 ISA cards?

    Also, does anyone know of a webserver that will fully be able to take advantage of the SMP setup?

    thanks for all the replies so far!

  5. #5
    Senior since the 3 dot era
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    PinkPanther, check your local second hand computer shop, perhaps you can get some good ISA NIC's (like Realtek or 3com based cards) for almost nothing.
    Next, even on a 80486 with old ATA disks the disk access is probably faster than ethernet. Think of this even ATA 33 means 33MB/s

  6. #6
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    Thanks for the replies. I think im still gonna go with using one big HD even if its not faster becuase i think it will be less "messy".
    Plus i wont have to find new HD's.

    each comp will only have a mobo, ethernet card, and in some of the comps, a video card. So since most of them will only have a mobo and ethernet card could it be possible to splice the MB cable on the psu and use it to power up two MB's Or this not a good idea? Just an idea so i can cut down on the amount of wall sockets i use up :-)

    Again, does anyone know of a webserver that better makes us of SMP architechture compared to apache?

    thanks for the help!

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