Tips for setting up a small cluster

CrocoDuck · 2016-06-21 09:03:31

Hi cool people!

I have been using Arch for few years but I am a total noob about clusters, so I hope this is the right section in the forums. I would like to setup a small cluster environment with just 2 nodes, as a beginning. It would be a Beowulf arrangement I would like to use mainly for running FEM solvers and other scientific software. I found some good pieces of documentation online (also stemming from this post). Manly few years old but I don't feel like it is gonna be a huge problem.

My questions are:

Any of you ever set up an Arch based cluster environment?
If so, do you have some good resources to where pointing me at?
Any specific tips/rule of thumbs for a scientific oriented cluster architecture (any kernel thing I should be aware of?..)?
The machines are two identical i7 950 @ 3.07GHz based workstations with 12 GB of RAM I had lying around unused. Any of you feeling that clustering them would be not that advantageous after all (I guess it will depend of the particular problems to be solved...)?

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by CrocoDuck (2016-06-21 09:10:37)

x33a · 2016-06-21 11:52:59

I would recommend starting from this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TORQUE

Trilby · 2016-06-21 11:55:00

TORQUE with two machines? That means there'd be one head node and one compute node. This would be worse than just using one machine in isolation to do the work as now there is just one machine doing the work plus also handling the overhead of the TORQUE client - tihs might be quite small, but even so, there'd definitely be no gain here over 1 system in isolation.

But you may likely face the same problem with any clustering system. Two is not a cluster.

CrocoDuck · 2016-06-21 12:17:53

Trilby wrote:

But you may likely face the same problem with any clustering system. Two is not a cluster.

I had a gut feeling about this. Glad I asked before wasting too much time before realizing it on my own. I guess I will be better setting up independent workstations then (which was plan B). Maybe I will try to put them together once they are set up, for experimental purposes.

x33a · 2016-06-23 05:01:32

Trilby wrote:

TORQUE with two machines? That means there'd be one head node and one compute node.

My bad. I interpreted two nodes as 1 master + 2 nodes.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-06-21 09:03:31

Tips for setting up a small cluster

#2 2016-06-21 11:52:59

Re: Tips for setting up a small cluster

#3 2016-06-21 11:55:00

Re: Tips for setting up a small cluster

#4 2016-06-21 12:17:53

Re: Tips for setting up a small cluster

#5 2016-06-23 05:01:32

Re: Tips for setting up a small cluster

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