[TriLUG] Clusters, performance, etc...

[Roy Vestal]

If you are going the linux route (and why would you not?!?), check 
http://openmosix.sourceforge.net/. Also, he can test it with bootable 
cluster CD's (Knoppix like) from openmosix.

HTH

len boyle wrote:

> Mark you might want to look at the latest copy of Dr Dobbs. They have 
> several articles on Grid clusters.
>
> I do not have direct experience with this, but as I understand things, 
> if you can change your application to split the jobs up into pieces 
> that can be handled in parallel it should help.
> So if you have three files that take one hour each or 3 hours total, 
> you could have three machines handling 1 file each for a total time of 
> 1 hour.
>
> Or look at site www.ddj.com
>
> len
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Freeze" <mfreeze at gmail.com>
> To: "Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list" <trilug at trilug.org>
> Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 2:33 PM
> Subject: [TriLUG] Clusters, performance, etc...
>
>
> 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.