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November 2006

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Subject:
Re: openMosix on SL?
From:
John Hearns <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
John Hearns <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 17 Nov 2006 10:26:50 +0000
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Nathan Moore wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm running SL on a set of Athlon64 x2 boxes in a small-college, 
> teaching environment.  I ran across a link today to openMosix, which 
> sounds at least like a beautiful idea that would turn most any 
> heterogeneous cluster into a SMP-like machine.  I'm writing to inquire 
> if anyone using SL has also installed openMosix.  I'm comfortable with 
> building software, configuring MPICH etc, but configuring/compiling a 
> new kernel (which openMosix seems to require) goes beyond my experience.

Nathan,  I have supported an openMosix cluster, and it certainly is
useful for certain workloads, and easy to use.

If you have a cluster of machines available, to get started you could
use the clusterKnoppix live CD http://clusterknoppix.sw.be/
The slave machines boot via PXE as
Mosix enabled machines.

Patching and building a custom kernel is not difficult. Just
follow any of the online HOWTOs on this.
Oh - and keep the original kernel in your /boot area and make sure it is
avaliable as an alternate in your grub/lilo menu!

However, openMosix is not released yet for 2.6 kernels:
"Note that openMosix is currently only available for 2.4 series kernels: 
a 2.6 series openMosix kernel is currently in development but is not 
ready for production use"ve, an

So try it our using the clusterKnoppix live CD as above, and your 
cluster of machines can be left with their SL install on hard drives, but
be booted into Mosix when you want to experiment with it.


> Should openMosix work with this system (particularly the 2.6 kernel part)
> 
> (2) once installed, would openMosix allow MPICH to run on top of the SMP 
> system?
I believe it is.
But Mosix REALLY doesn't give you an SMP system - it migrates heavily
used processes to another node in the cluster by checkpointing and restart.

Also if you are interested in SSI type setups, well worth looking at
Kerrighed  http://www.kerrighed.org/


-- 
      John Hearns
      Senior HPC Engineer
      Streamline Computing,
      The Innovation Centre, Warwick Technology Park,
      Gallows Hill, Warwick CV34 6UW
      Office: 01926 623130 Mobile: 07841 231235

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