High Performance Linux Clusters with OSCAR, Rocks, OpenMosix, and MPI [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Chapter 4. Linux for Clusters

This
chapter reviews some of the issues involved in setting up a Linux
system for use in a cluster. While several key services are described
in detail, for the most part the focus is more on the issues and
rationales than on specifics. Even if you are an old pro at Linux
system administration, you may still want to skim this chapter for a
quick overview of the issues as they relate to clusters, particularly
the section on configuring services. If you are new to Linux system
administration, this chapter will probably seem very terse.
What's presented here is the bare minimum a novice
system administrator will need to get started. The Appendix A lists additional sources.

This chapter covers material you'll need when
setting up the head node and a typical cluster node. Depending on the
approach you take, much of this may be done for you. If you are
building your cluster from the ground up, you'll
need to install the head node, configure the individual services on
it, and build at least one compute node. Once you have determined how
a compute node should be configured, you can turn to Chapter 8 for a
discussion of how to duplicate systems in an efficient manner. It is
much simpler with kits like OSCAR and Rocks.

With OSCAR, you'll need to
install Linux on the head system, but OSCAR will configure the
services for you. It will also build the client, i.e., generate a
system image and install it on the compute nodes. OSCAR will
configure and install most of the packages you'll
need. The key to using OSCAR is to use a version of Linux that is
known to be compatible with OSCAR. OSCAR is described in Chapter 6. With Rocks,
described in Chapter 7, everything will be done
for you. Red Hat Linux comes as part of the Rocks distribution.

This chapter begins with a discussion of selecting a Linux
distribution. A general discussion of installing Linux follows. Next,
the configuration of relevant network services is described. Finally,
there is a brief discussion of security. If you are adding clustering
software to an existing collection of workstations, presumably Linux
is already installed on your machines. If this is the case, you can
probably skim the first couple of sections. But while you
won't need to install Linux, you will need to ensure
that it is configured correctly and all the services
you'll need are available.