cluster computing

[xK1LLSW1TCHx127]

Hello community=) i am back with yet another question for the tech gurus of this fantastic forum. Ok, so i have been collecting pc's for a while, i have a few laptops and a desktop which don't have hadd drives and so are useless. I want to cluster these computers to make a really powerful one which i would use mainly for android programming and programming in general. The problem is that it appears that every form of computer cluster is mainly for scientific purposes, is this the only use for computer clusters? Is there a cluster type that i can build for my needs? Thanks guys, i appreciate your help amd time

 

[Sean W.]

This is definitly possible get your favorite linux flavor and bring up the "man Pages" on beowulf clustering. I was able to do this with 10 hacked xbox's and had great luck with it.

 

[xK1LLSW1TCHx127]

This is definitly possible get your favorite linux flavor and bring up the "man Pages" on beowulf clustering. I was able to do this with 10 hacked xbox's and had great luck with it.

Great, so my question now is, java and android developmemt: it works with a computer cluster? Cause in a cluster a command is broken into pieces to be worked out by different nodes, will that work with java development?
Thanks

 

[Night Fox]

http://www.proxmox.com/products/proxmox-ve <--ran into this a week ago, might suit your needs.


Edit: from what I've seen, the web-based manager uses java and vnc through the browser to view the desktop. It's a very simple setup: Install proxmox on each computer, make one the master, make the others the nodes, and then create the virtual machine. They even have pre-built virtual machines that you can download and install directly (or you can upload your own ISO and install that).

 

[Spud1200]

I had no Idea this was possible and you could Cluster Computers, makes sence now that I think about it, but haveing 4 Systems here at Home I wounder if a Cluster would benifit me in way F@H with a Linux Distro even for just the two Desktops I have. Only problem is I have never had and got no experience with Linux so the likes of the Drivers for the System and likes of the Devices ect I wouldnt have a clue were to start.

Thanks for that, gonna look up and do some reading on the subject.

 

[xK1LLSW1TCHx127]

Proxmox - Proxmox VE <--ran into this a week ago, might suit your needs.


Edit: from what I've seen, the web-based manager uses java and vnc through the browser to view the desktop. It's a very simple setup: Install proxmox on each computer, make one the master, make the others the nodes, and then create the virtual machine. They even have pre-built virtual machines that you can download and install directly (or you can upload your own ISO and install that).

Ok, so what I'm getting from this is that i can set up my cluster and then after I install linux on each slave and the master I can run a Kernel Virtual Machine (proxmox) on each node and the master, and have the entire cluster run a Linux distro as a Virtual Machine, allowing me to install the SDK, Eclipse, and JDK I need to develop for Android? Am i understanding correctly? Because if i am, than that is pretty Epic =)

By the way, thank you all for responding so quickly, this thread is being extremely helpful to me =)

 

[Night Fox]

No. Proxmox is the operating system you install on each computer (so the Proxmox OS is running by itself). You set one computer to be the master, and the rest of them nodes. Then you create a virtual machine through the web-based manager which controls everything, and install your OS of choice on the virtual machine. Then you can connect to that virtual machine from a different computer remotely, and you have everything.

Now, you may an issue with this, as the cluster will be fast, but I'm not so sure how well the remote connection (vnc) will work for you. Couldn't hurt to give it a shot. This guy I work with is testing this out on a couple of servers, so I can take a look around when I get time and see if it works reasonably well for programming in vnc connection.

 

[xK1LLSW1TCHx127]

Ok, i see. Now my only worry is that JDK, SDK and Eclipse are not designed to be split into a cluster to be run like that, right? I can build the cluster, I read up on the software and i can do that, the problem is will my cluster run the SDK, JDK and Eclipse as a single machine for me, or will my Master PC run the software while all of the nodes are simply sitting there sucking up electricity? I hope my question is clear, thanks again guys!

 

[Night Fox]

From what I've read, the actual virtual machine is stored on the hard drive of one of the machines (either the master or one of the nodes), then the resources of all machines are combined for the virtual machine's use. Therefore, everything you install will not even realize there is a cluster, it will look just like a regular OS (unless it can differentiate between a virtual OS and a real OS). What I was saying in my previous post is that the only way to see the desktop of the virtual machine, is to remotely connect to it with vnc or other program, which may be slow.

 

[Night Fox]

The problem is that it appears that every form of computer cluster is mainly for scientific purposes.

Proxmox is built for virtual servers. Not scientific, yet, not exactly programming, but it may work for killswitch.