Introduction

The CPU clusters are designed to provide an "engine" of dedicated processors grouped into a common intranet.  A single master node is the sole access point to the cluster.  The clusters are based upon the Beowulf model of massive parallel machines (COTS, linux, and other free software).  Although capable of true parallel processing, the clusters are utilized primarily as a COW (Collection of Workstations).

Tiamat

Originally a four-nodes cluster, now a 2 node test cluster; 1 master, 1 client.

• Master Node
• Hardware
• Asus P2B motherboard
• Single Intel Celeron 300A processor
• Two 8GB harddrives
• /dev/hda:  Linux system files
• /dev/hdb:  /home (user directories)
• Two Intel EtherPro 100 network interface cards
• 128MB RAM
• ATi Xpert98 graphics card
• CDROM reader
• Floppy
• Antec Rackmount chassis
• Software
• Red Hat Linux 5.2
• PVM version 3 server and client
• SSH
• NFS
• Client Node (Head01)
• Hardware;  same as master node with following exceptions
• Single 8GB harddrive for Linux OS; /home is mounted from Master via NFS
• Single Intel EtherPro 100
• ATi 3D Charger graphics card
• No CDROM reader
• Software; same as master node

Cloister

Main cluster with 1 master node (Abbot) and 3 client nodes (Monks).
 
• Abbot
• Hardware
• Asus XG-DLS motherboard
• Dual Xeon
• On-board Adaptec SCSI controller
• On-board Intel EtherPro 100 network interface
• Two 450MHz/512KB Intel Xeon processors
• Harddrive SCSI subsytem:
• /dev/sda:  9GB for Linux system
• /dev/sdb:  18GB for /home
• CDROM reader
• 256MB RAM
• Extra Intel EtherPro 100 network interface card
• Matrox Millenium G200 garphics card
• floppy
• Antec Rackmount chassis
• Software
• Red Hat Linux 6.0
• PVM version 3
• SSH
• NFS
• Portable Batch System (PBS)
• Monks
• Hardware
• Asus P2B-D motherboard (dual processor)
• Two Intel 450MHz PIII processors
• Drive subsystem
• /dev/hda:  8GB IDE for Linux system
• /home: NFS mounted from Abbot
• 256MB RAM
• Intel EtherPro 100 NIC
• ATi Xpert98 graphics card
• floppy
• Antec rackmount chassis
• Software
• Red Hat Linux 6.0
• PVM
• SSH
• NFS
• PBS

Network and other considerations

• 24 port Intel Express 410T 100Mbps switch serves as hub for both clusters
• Master nodes function as bridge between university backbone and cluster intranet.
• Function as "firewall"
• Central entry and exit point as well as administrative node.
• Tiamat heads reside on dummy subnet 192.168.1.0.
• Cloister monks reside on dummy subnet 192.168.2.0.
• All nodes share monitor and keyboard via a switch box.
• All nodes connected to a rackmount power strip.
• Rdist used to synchronize system files (passwd, group, etc.)