[Clusterusers] Re: cluster planning

[Chris Perry]

Quick addition on what to install: I like the idea of an externally-visible
head node, myself, which then would make me want to have some form of web
server available. Also PHP, SQL, etc.

- chris


on 5/15/06 10:32 AM, Wm. Josiah Erikson at wjerikson at hampshire.edu wrote:

> Hello all,
>     For anybody who doesn't already know:
> 
>     Right now, fly's head node is serving most of fly AND most of hex (a
> couple of dead motherboards and hard drives is the only reason that
> isn't ALL - hardware is on order to remedy this), proving that
> non-identical hardware can coexist in the same cluster just fine with
> ROCKS, the clustering software I'm currently using and have fallen in
> love with.
>    
>     I'm going to go forward with cluster planning assuming that
> everybody thinks it would be great if both clusters were permanently the
> same, as that's the universal response I got from everybody when we
> first started talking about getting fly back up and running. This is
> possible and even relatively simple with ROCKS, as I have just proven :)
>     I'm going to put new hard drives, in a RAID 1, in hex's current
> master node - 250GB hard drives, an upgrade from the current 120GB hard
> drives - the old ones are well past their life expectancy, which makes
> me nervous. Hex's master node will serve all 40 compute nodes. The
> question is: Should I put hex at fly's IP (directly acessible from the
> outside world via SSH and HTTP), or hex's IP (only accessible directly
> from inside Hampshire's network). I would argue for the former... I also
> think fly is a cooler name than hex, but I don't actually care :) I can
> keep fly up-to-date security-wise for those services that are available,
> and the rest are firewalled at the kernel level as well as at the edge
> of Hampshire's network, so I don't think we're exposing ourselves to
> anything big and scary by giving outselves a globally valid IP.
> 
>     In short: I plan on putting both clusters together into one, using
> hex's current master node to be the head node, calling it fly, and
> making it globally accessible. Does anybody have a problem with this?
> 
>     Here are the services/programs that I know need to be installed.
> Please add to this list:
> 
>     -breve
>     -Maya and Pixar license servers
>     -Pixar stuff (RenderManProServer and rat)
>     -MPI
>     -build tools (gcc, etc - v4 as well as v3)
>     -X on the head node
>     -Maya
>     -cmucl
>     -All the standard ROCKS stuff that is now on fly. This means that
> the new combined cluster will look very very much indeed like fly does
> currently. Nearly identical, in fact, except for the addition of gcc 4.0
> , license servers, and the head node will be faster and RAIDed. We're
> working on a backup scheme for the homedirs, and until then, I would
> continue to use the FireWire drive that is currently being used for backup.
> 
>     I will take everything that people have on both their hex and their
> fly homedirs and put them into the new cluster, if necessary. It would
> be nice if people would clean up what isn't needed before then.
> 
>     Also, please tell me when you next plan to use the cluster and for
> what, so that I can plan what should be up and working and how at that
> point.
> 
>     Thanks - send any comments, concerns, or "what the hell do you think
> you're doing"'s my way.
> 
>     -Josiah
> 
> 
> 
>