From: Paul Greidanus;  Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 3:44 PM
>
>I'm not sure if this has come up before, but I was just thinking about
>diskless cluster nodes, or if not diskless, run them so they boot
>network, and use the entirety of the local disk as scratch?

There is a diskless OSCAR sub-project.  I'm not directly involved with
the project, so I can't comment on its status; perhaps someone involved
with the effort can.

>This of course would increase load on the head node, and add more
>traffic to the network, but would it be worthwhile as an option to add
>to oscar?  Or is it a horrible idea for clusters in general?

Of course, the answer is "It Depends."  More specifically, it depends on
the application you're running, the network and inter-node traffic, the
non-scratch disk activities, and other factors.  Some applications run
quite well on diskless clusters, others run horribly.

While maintenance of a diskless cluster is generally easier than its
diskful cousin, you should always be mindful of the fact that the
computations being performed on the cluster should be the significant
design factor, not the ease of administration.

So, only you, or someone who has carefully studied the same workflow and
application usage as you will be running, can accurately answer this
question.

-- 
David N. Lombard
 
My comments represent my opinions, not those of Intel Corporation.


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