Re: tlug: Clustering Linux Boxes

[Christopher Sekiya <wileyc@example.com>]

On Mon, 24 May 1999, Austin Kurahone wrote:

> Now the question that I have is that will making a cluster(eg: Avalon with 
> Extreme Linux) give me performace advantages for all my programs, or do they 
> need to be specially coded to take advantage of the cluster.

They need to be specially coded.

> If they need to be specially programed, what is the feasibility of
> coding/implementing a transarent layer(a module maybe) that will allow
> the Linux kernel to automatically distribute the separate
> threads/tasks to the various nodes in the cluster???

This is a userspace issue (nothing special needs to be done to a stock
kernel to do clustering[1]).  Check out MPICH and/or PVM.

-- Chris (wileyc@example.com)

[1] Yes, yes, channel bonding and other goodies need patches.  That's
    beyond the scope of this discussion.

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