[TriLUG] Clusters, performance, etc...

[Mark Freeze]

Someone please take my side and settle an argument for me.
 I have a friend who runs a business like mine and we have the same basic
setup. We normally receive files from customers that may be 50 to 100 MB. We
run programs on these files that parse text, create databases, purge
records, and so on. Normal database stuff. Converting and parsing records
with the software that I have written usually runs for about 1 hour on the
larger files and we may have 2 or 3 of these files each time a customer
trasmits data to us.
 My friend says that he is considering clustering Linux boxes together to
improve the speed of the processing and he figures that he can cut
processing time in half. Now I may be in for a public spanking, but I did
not think that clustering would have that much of an effect on this type of
operation. Also, he is not talking about clustering new, workhorse p4
machines... He is talking about clustering up about 4 or 5 p3 & p4 machines
that he has as spares. From the things that I have read (including the link
that someone posted the other day) I think that he has a misconception of
clustering.
 Am I way off base? Will clustering have this dramatic of an effect?
 Thanks,
Mark.