[ILUG] Re: Getting started with Beowulf

[Vicente Werner]

Neither EC2 nor App Engine are really suited to HPC, they're quite valid
options for Highly Escalable Web Apps, but they don't really work for highly
intensive apps (I did a pilot for a video streaming company to asses the
feasibility of using them for the encoding engines...better don't ask about
the real costs)

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 3:04 PM, Robert Grundulis <
robertmartinbrown at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Karl,
>
> Thanks for the advice. I looked in to Google App Engine and Amazon EC2.
> Amazon is limited by being Python only. Nothing wrong with Python, it's
> just
> that there would be a fair bit of effort invovled inporting all the C++ and
> Fortran code over. EC2 looks good, but for high performance computing
> applications it seems expensive. The quote I got approximated a cost of
> around $361 per month for using their highest powered virtual server
> option.
> For that kind of money I thnk clustering a load of old, but free, servers
> would be better. There are also confidentiality issues that would prevent
> the use of an external service provider who would not be willing to sign a
> custom confidentiality guarantee.
>
> I've been looking in to OSCAR (
> http://svn.oscar.openclustergroup.org/trac/oscar) which seems well suited
> to
> what I am after. Has anyone ever used it?
>
> Cheers,
> Robert
>
>
> 2009/6/23 Karl O'Dwyer <me at karlodwyer.net>
>
> > Hi Robert,
> >
> > Clustering isn't all its cracked up to be...
> >
> > It only really works if your problem can be broken up well.
> > Some problems might not suit a cluster well.
> >
> > There is some alternatives to setting up your own cluster.
> >
> > If this is part of a research project you might be able to get to
> > run on the Irish Center for High End Computing's supercomputing clusters.
> >
> > A Cloud computing Platform like Google App Engine or Azure could be
> useful.
> >
> > Or if you have a GeForce 8, 9, 100, 200-series GPU, CUDA could be your
> > solution.
> >
> > Well the best of luck what ever way you go.
> > All the Best,
> >
> > - Karl
> >
> > > Hello all,
> > >
> > > Can anyone offer me suggestions on good books or resources that would
> > help
> > > get me up to speed with Beowulf clustering?
> > >
> > > I've written an application that does calculations on fluid dynamics,
> > > propellers and hull forms (boaty stuff) and the intention is to move it
> > on
> > > to a cluster to speed it up. At the moment one calculation takes about
> 3
> > > days on a dual core Xeon, so there are obvious benefits to moving it on
> > to
> > > a
> > > cluster.
> > >
> > > I have free access to dozens of old university PCs and servers (all P4
> > and
> > > adbove) and the plan is to cluster them.
> > >
> > > The thing is I've never worked with clusters before and I don't have a
> > clue
> > > where to start. Can anyone help point me in the right direction?
> > >
> > > --
> > > Cheers,
> > > Robert Grundulis
> > > --
> >
> > --
> > Karl O'Dwyer
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Robert Grundulis
> http://www.chaptalk.com
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-- 
Vicente Werner y Sánchez