[ubuntu-uk] OpenSSI on Ubuntu (with LTSP thrown in for good measure)

[Tony Travis]

Rob Beard wrote:
> [...]
> I've found details on OpenSSI which appears to support LTSP on Fedora  
> Core 3 although the details are a bit lacking.  I was wondering if  
> anyone had had a play around with OpenSSI on Ubuntu, and even better  
> OpenSSI and LTSP on the same installation of Ubuntu?

Hello, Rob.

OpenSSI is intended to make a group of systems look like one system (SSI 
means Single System Image). The idea is that the group is managed and 
used as one system. I use openMosix for a similar purpose on a 92-node 
Beowulf cluster under Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS. However, this is a 2.4 kernel, 
with no SATA support. The deb's are available here if you're interested:

	http://bioinformatics.rri.sari.ac.uk/openmosix

I'm evaluating alternatives to openMosix at present, because there has 
been an end-of-life announcement for openMosix. Moshe Bar, the founder 
of the openMosix project, has decided to end the project because he 
believes that large SMP machines eliminate the need for SSI clusters. 
Not everyone agrees with him about that...

I'm particularly interested in Kerrighed as an alternative:

	http://www.kerrighed.org

I think you might find that a DNS 'round-robin' and a server farm fits 
your requirements better than SSI. The problem with SSI is the process 
migration overhead on a single 'login' server. You also have to bear in 
mind that not all processes can be migrated.

	Tony.
-- 
Dr. A.J.Travis,                     |  mailto:ajt at rri.sari.ac.uk
Rowett Research Institute,          |    http://www.rri.sari.ac.uk/~ajt
Greenburn Road, Bucksburn,          |   phone:+44 (0)1224 712751
Aberdeen AB21 9SB, Scotland, UK.    |     fax:+44 (0)1224 716687