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Taking half the farm down

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It's okay buddy, no need to justify your addiction to us :D Now I can't let you off the hook without lots of details on this cluster... How is it breaking up the units? Did you have to tamper with the fft routine in the code? If not that would be awesome since it doesn't violate the "patched client" warning from Berkeley.
 
LuKE said:
I'm thinking about taking the slower half of my machine down for two reasons. First is to make room and give me an excuse to build faster machines. Second is to learn how to build a mosix cluster with some friends. With his cluster of 7 p100 machines we were able to complete a wu in 7mins.

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/fcgi-bin/[email protected]&cmd=user_stats_new
Click to expand...

Can you explain this 'cluster' that you are talking about. 7 min. seems incredible with only 7 machines. I want to do that.

What does it do, split the w/u and then put them together?
 
Morph could probably tell you something about this concept too. Basically you need some software to split the work unit data up and distribute it to each machine and then append the returned data in the proper sequence. A friend of mine actually worked on a cluster at GA Tech, but they used 20 systems running linux and they had to break into the seti code, so ultimately Berkeley would not accept the results. That's why it has been stated that Benz could be doing something similar if his work unit times are actually that low, but Berkeley will not accept results from altered clients, usually refered to as patched clients.
 
TC said:
Morph could probably tell you something about this concept too. Basically you need some software to split the work unit data up and distribute it to each machine and then append the returned data in the proper sequence. A friend of mine actually worked on a cluster at GA Tech, but they used 20 systems running linux and they had to break into the seti code, so ultimately Berkeley would not accept the results. That's why it has been stated that Benz could be doing something similar if his work unit times are actually that low, but Berkeley will not accept results from altered clients, usually refered to as patched clients.
Click to expand...

OK. Thanks TC. I'll just keep cruncing away.
 
TC is right...

I did A LOT of research into this (Beowulf cluster though... search Beowulf+Stanford if interested), and collected MANY parts before I came up one of the issues TC mentions... that is, the intergrity of the code must be maintained...

Secondly, in a Beowulf, the "network" device is the true cost... and Grendel (the software) is still evolving...

At one point, I had all the hardware for more than 14 P-166s w/ 64Mb of RAM... I could never find/afford the "fast" switch to make it all happen... (the get an idea, Standford used a very spendy switch donated by AT&T on the first Beowulf, and it was NOT fast enough)....

These are the issues that helped me "get a grip" and abandon the project... Luke sound like he may be onto something though... I NEED TO KNOW MORE!!! :eek: :rolleyes: :eek: :rolleyes: :eh?:
 
Elaborate for us LuKe..

What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain? The samething we do everynight, try and take over the world!
 
Greg M said:
http://www.mosix.org/

This doesn't sound illegal to me. The OS divides the workload of the application. The client isn't hacked.

They're also using fast ethernet. Ethernet switches are cheap.
Click to expand...
Yes indeed. I have 5 linux nodes here that I may try it on this evening if time permits.
 
TC said:
Yes indeed. I have 5 linux nodes here that I may try it on this evening if time permits.
Click to expand...

TC-
Please keep us posted. If it works, can we find out if SETI will except this? It could mean a lot to our team.
 
You know what ****es me off, that completing 1 wu puts a person above 34% of the total SETIers. (click the link in LuKE's post and you'll see it) I know some of those 0 wu'ers are new members who just haven't completed a unit yet but most are people who've signed up and then done nothing.
 
7 p100s completing a wu in 7 minutes is WILD: I have a work pc here for the weekend (had to replace a bad VLB ide card- lol!) and the thing is a p90. I tossed Seti on it just to see: after 26 hours its about 17% complete!!!!!!!!!

Luke- or TC: please do a benchmark wu for a comparison with LandShark- if results are valid......

I can get hold of at least a dozen sub 200mhz pcs within a week!

Talk about a Farm!:D

(Side note: with the low power needs of early Pentium-class chips, do you think 1 modern psu could power a couple of 'em?)
 
Add me to the list of those interested in this cluster setup! If it works and is legal then what an awesome project to work on . :D

Cy
 
I'm going to take a look in a bit. All of my systems here are red hat 7.3. The site mentioned a version all ready to go on slack 8 which is what we have on the servers at work. I can't risk taking the servers down, but if red hat doesn't work I'll snag the slack cd from the office and load it here.
 
Don't try this at home kids - I hosed my red hat install. Gotta start over from scratch.
 
wow this sounds really neat. i have 4 or so k6-2 and mobos lying around. alone they take for ever to process a WU bout together it sounds like it might be an idea. keep us updated.
 
Last edited:
ok this is sounding better as i read more. so it sounds like i could link my dual Athlon, and/or just three k6-2 550. is this easy to set up? they don't really say much on their site. i am new to linux. i have used it a few times but never really got that experienced at it. tell us how it goes. i am thinking this is very cool.
 
This looks possible even for the slightly newbie linux people. I did screw up a red hat box last night, but I think I know why. The installation program wanted a path to the kernel source files, and I couldn't find them so I tried to skip that section and move on. When I got done I couldn't shutdown or reboot my system.
 
Why do some work units take very little time to complete?

Why did the progress bar suddenly jump to 100% only part way through the analysis?

Occasionally, a work unit will contain strong radio interference; these strong interfering signals typically come from satellites and radar from our own civilization. If the interference is very strong, the SETI@home program can not analyze that part of the spectrum, and after trying for a few minutes and detecting thousands of strong signals of earth origin, the program stops early in the processing and gets a new work unit. You will still get credit for the work done.

Were thinking that's what happened but were still checking this out. I'm selling him like 10 more pentium class machines and a larger hub so maybe we can get this puppy running quicker. Thanks for the interest guys!
 
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