How to setup clusters

[Alma J Wetzker]

> "Net Llama!" <netllama at linux-sxs.org> Fri, 08 Aug 2003 21:03:34 -0700
> 
> On 08/08/03 20:38, Alma J Wetzker wrote:
> 
>>>> "Net Llama!" <netllama at linux-sxs.org>
>>>> Fri, 08 Aug 2003 15:26:25 -0700
>>>> On 08/08/03 15:04, Alma J Wetzker wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Our IEEE chapter at school is going to setup a linux cluster.  Does 
>>>>> anyone have any experience/advice/interesting opinions about doing 
>>>>> so? I am wondering if there is a good distro or any other 
>>>>> wonderfulnes that will make the thing fun and last the semester.
>>>>
>>>> What do you plan to use it for?  'clusters' have *ALOT* of different 
>>>> meanings and uses, and that is heavily dependent on how you set one up.
>>
>> We plan on using it to learn how to setup clusters.
> 
> Let me rephrase.  You're asking 'how do i setup a cluster'.  I stated 
> that there is no such thing as one type of cluster.  Its as if you asked 
> 'how do i create software?'.  There's not a single type of software, or 
> even a single programming language to write the software.
>
Sorry Lonnie, I do know the difference but I really don't have a single 
type of cluster in mind.  What I meant to ask is if anyone on the list 
has setup a cluster, if so, what type and what distribution was used?

I would like to setup a cluster consisting of a single virtual machine 
as I think that can be the most flexible.  As I am not the only person 
working on the project I can't be more specific for a few weeks.  I am 
just trying to use personal resources in addition to google and other 
various search engines and 900 pages of documentation.

>> My personal interest is distributed applications, so a virtual machine 
>> running a database would be good.  But we don't have the disk space to 
>> make it worthwhile.  I hope to use more than one configuration before 
>> we are done.
> 
> Well, there are alot of different types of databases out there, some 
> with excellent clustering support, some without.  Oracle & DB2 have 
> pretty decent distributed processing support.  The amount of diskspace 
> isn't really an issue unless you plan to start dumping large chunks of 
> data into the DB.  Otherwise, a database will remain as small as you 
> want it to.
>
Most of my paid work has been Oracle where I end up using triggers and 
stuff to accomplish what I need to get done.  I am trying to figure out 
MySQL right now and perhaps PostgreSQL next year.  Most of my test data 
is quite large as I need to test MANY configurations and options.

> Like i already said, clusters are not a singular thing, like apache, or 
> fortran programming.  Its a very broad field, and you need to think 
> about what part of it you're interested in persuing, as there isn't a 
> single method that applies to everything.  A cluster is just more than 
> one physical computer working together to accomplish a single task.  Be 
> it data storage, numerical computation, graphic rendering, or something 
> else altogether.  Once you figure that out with a degree of specificity, 
> then you can move towards determining how to set one up.
Since I don't know, or care, which direction I am going with this, ANY 
help or direction from the list is valuable.  (Especially questions like 
yours!)

Thanks!

     -- Alma