View Full Version : Dream of clustrers
I had this great idea last night: Take five motherboards with riser cards, and stack them in a circular case (well mount them that way). Make one circular riser card to accomodate all computers. Extend the USB ports to go through a hole in the middle of said riser card (which will be mounted above motherboards). Install fast ethernet with a switch mounted somewhere in the case. Tell computers to boot from USB pendrives with clustering software instaled on them. Do whatever else needs to be done to this thing, and sit it under your desk. Connect it to your main rig and work out the clustering. I can't do it right now because I have no money, but tell me what you think.
sorry... whats the point? "work out the clustering"... i dont understand.
The idea is basically to have a (nearly) self-contained cluster. A cylindrical case that sits under the desk with tons if extra processing power in it ready to be put to use. That is the point. By "work out clustering" I mean set up the cluster. I haven't had any practice with this and only know the most basic things. If you don't know what a cluster is, ask someone who's done it.
suicidalmole
03-07-04, 09:44 PM
this would work well for someone working with 3d animation........hmmm......oh...and for those without the know a cluster is a group of computers working in parallel. Like the supercomputer at Virginia Tech made from 1100 macs.
I'm sorry that I'm not more well spoken about this. I guess it's hard to articulate your dreams sometimes. Maybe when I learn to use AutoCad, I can show you exactally what I mean. Or even better, if I can get five P3 666's for free from my school i can actually build this thing. I think the most expensive parts will be the fast ethernet and the USB pendrives. *Donations excepted(I can dream can't I)*
PhreakinSyco
03-08-04, 02:20 AM
It would be quite a site to see such a Thing. Even more amazing would be to open this box and see all the wiring. This is quite a task your looking at.
Yes it would be amazing.. but.. I think that if I hooked up my 2 P4 3.0GHZs in cluster style that I might be able to outdo that setup without breaking a sweat.
If your going to aim high.. do what I do.. aim so high that it becomes impossible and then you give up and become satified with what you have! Very self rewarding.
PhreakinSyco
As for "fast" ethernet, grab a fibre NIC for each box and 6 port fibre switch :D Instead of expensive USB pen drives you could always just u se bootable cdroms with a custom bootable linux distro on them, or floppies for that matter, or old 800mb hdds.. I like the case idea. Only issue would be powering them all, and where would you stack the damn PSUs? I'm thinking just have a redundant setup with two massive 550ws or something and make a few Y adapters.
-RuKK
Tim-E T
03-08-04, 08:52 AM
If you want linux clustering distros have a look at ClusterKnoppix (http://bofh.be/clusterknoppix/) and PlumpOS (http://plumpos.sourceforge.net/). Personally I am going to build a cluster using Clusterknoppix.
EDIT: Forgive me if Im wrong but I thought i saw that Arkaine23, here at the forums, was working on a overclockix version of clusterknoppix. Not to sure thought, maybe its my imagination :) .
The pendrives would be to save space. It would also work to my advantage in that I could easily remove them to update the software. It would also help with powering this monster because I wouldn't have to power anything but the motherboards.
@PhreakinSyco: If I keep aiming high, I'll be stuck with my PIII 750 forever. The best stuff I have is considered crap nowadays! I think this cluster idea is reasonable.
Tim-E T
03-08-04, 06:18 PM
I hope you understand that a cluster doesnt *exactly* act as one computer. These are types of clustering for linux: For a beowulf cluster you have to program the programs you want to run specifically. Something that I dont think you or I could do. An openmosix cluster works differently. ClusterKnoppix uses openmosix and all it does is send different processes to each node in order to balance out the work. But there is slowdown because it has to send it over a network.
P.S. With clusterknoppix you wouldnt need any drives for the nodes as they could network boot off the master node.
Arkaine23
03-08-04, 07:03 PM
Yeah, ideally, you'd set up a single server from which your applications run and where data is written do when processed. This server could be a terminal server, capable of booting the other nodes over the network and serving files (even their OS image) to them. Or you could boot them off usb pen, floppy, or even CD-rom. But the bottom line is that they could use an OS on a CD or LTSP server and not need a hard drive of their own.
What they'd be useful for is rendering animation, or doing a lot of jobs at once- like say 20 video encodes. Because then you wouldn't have to monkey around with launching the job on each machine, you'd just sit on one box and launch a bunch of jobs and they'd spilt out to the free nodes automatically.
I was thinking of using a cluster for something more along the lines of sam hash cracking. I don't quite know why it facinates me so. There's just a certain thrill in having more control over what happens on your school's computers than the school does. Only problem with that is it took me half a year to crack the password. Writing a cluster compatable sam hash cracker wouldn't be so hard.
Originally posted by Arkaine23
Yeah, ideally, you'd set up a single server from which your applications run and where data is written do when processed. This server could be a terminal server, capable of booting the other nodes over the network and serving files (even their OS image) to them. Or you could boot them off usb pen, floppy, or even CD-rom. But the bottom line is that they could use an OS on a CD or LTSP server and not need a hard drive of their own.
What they'd be useful for is rendering animation, or doing a lot of jobs at once- like say 20 video encodes. Because then you wouldn't have to monkey around with launching the job on each machine, you'd just sit on one box and launch a bunch of jobs and they'd spilt out to the free nodes automatically.
You could just boot the nodes off a single linux NFS for that matter. That way you only have to configure one system. For more on NFS: http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/NFS-Root.html
sandrock
03-09-04, 11:11 PM
Im sure you could use the cluster to fold too, couldn't you?
Tim-E T
03-09-04, 11:37 PM
In order for folding to run on a cluster you would have to reprogram the client to split its processes and send them to the other nodes. Often people refer f@h farms to cluster when in actuality they are not true clusters. Although Arkaine may be thinking up something for ClusterOverclockix(or something :P ).
Alice, it's young folks like you that keep technology progressing. Always continue to think of fun and innovative things to do with technology. Who knows, someday you might stumble across the next........
You confuse me. Was that an insult or a joke? And how does it pertain to me? (I'm not trying to sound bitchy by the way)
juliendogg
03-10-04, 07:13 AM
Originally posted by Alice
You confuse me. Was that an insult or a joke? And how does it pertain to me? (I'm not trying to sound bitchy by the way)
I think he was giving you props, and i will too, kewl idea. Hey, i have found that rather than USB pens, which are quite pricey, those cheap little usb compact flash readers function in exactly the same way. You can get one reader, and as many cards as you need. Save a buck or two. I have used my card reader at work in the same way that co-workers use their much more expensive usb pens. ;). you may look into that. Actually, while i was reading i stumbled across a way to get a 4GB compact flash card. The card is standard size for cam's and such, but it's housed in a 4GB mp3 player. To get a 2GB usb drive right now costs you $450. You can grab that MP3 player for $250 and rip it apart and voila! 4GB flash card. (not that that pertains to anything here, just thought it was interesting)
:D,
J.
Oh, okay. Thanks for the props!
As my son says, I was giving you "mad props." :D
interesting cluster link (http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/cluster/)
I figure if I do this, I'll just use SBCs. Many of them come with onboard gigabit ethernet. I was at the Weirdstuff warehouse today and found 5 identical SBCs at $10 each. They can support 750mhz pIIIs, but only have 100kbps ethernet. Also, I can't figure out how to power them I guess they require a backplane.
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