diskless, headless crunchers ??

[none1]

Hi all! My quad P3 server is up and running LINUX! I'm pretty sure I can set it up to server boot nodes over the network.

Is anyone still doing this? Do any (all?) of the modern motherboards netboot? Will they run WITHOUT a video card?

I know FRYS has been offering cheap quad + ECS motherboard deals for $300. $80 for ram, $40 for processor ...... DONE. No monitor, HD, etc. etc. ...... $420 for massive crunching power .....

Anyone got any info on intel motherboards that would use quads and be suitible for such an endeavor?

Thanks!

 

[eaglescouter]

I started down that road a very long time ago but only got as far as:
Headless
Keyboardless
Mouseless

I never went diskless
I never used *nix

 

[none1]

Thanks eagle! I did it before, had 12 nodes going at one time with just one server with a hard drive. Key is .. most .. motherboards have nics, and can boot over the internet, but SOME of them don't have the same boot protocal that is easy to use in linux. So appropriate choosing of the motherboards makes life much easier. Same for video ..... SOME motherboards just wont boot unless u have a video card in them, many you can turn this off in the bios, but not all.

SO figured I start here and see if anyonne knew a good motherboard that would work. I'll do some research and report back, even if you don't go quad ......

all you need is motherboard, processor, and memory, and you can use REAL low memory. With a C2D ... we could get some serious crankage for cheap .....

thanks!