Douglas Eadline wrote:
<Soapbox> I am constantly amazed at how many people buy the latest and greatest node hardware and then connect them with a sub-optimal switch (or cheap cables), thus reducing the effective performance of the nodes (for parallel applications). Kind "penny wise and pound foolish" as they say. </Soapbox>
I sincerely appreciate all the comments about my problem. I will reply to them in due time. However, I'd like to comment on this, which admittedly is off-topic from my original posting. I don't disagree with what you're saying. The problem is how to recognize "sub-optimal" equipment. For example, I see three tiers in ethernet switching hardware: 1) The low-end, e.g. Netgear, Linksys, D-link, ... 2) The mid-end, e.g. HP Procurve, Dell, SMC, ... 3) The high-end, e.g. Cisco, Foundry, ... What I, as a system manager, not as an Electrical Engineer, have trouble understanding, is what the true differences are between these levels, and, at one level, between the various vendors. These days I suspect that many of the vendors are using ASICs made by other chip companies, and the many vendors use the same ASICs. Assuming that's true, where's the added value that justifies the cost differences? Sometimes the value is in the "management" abilities of a device. I don't deny this can be a major selling point in a large enterprise environment, but in a 30-node cluster, or a small LAN, it's hard to justify paying for this. In terms of ethernet performance, once a device can handle wirespeed communication on all ports, where's the added value that justifies the added cost? I'm looking for empirical answers, which aren't always easy to find, and sometimes to understand. In the case of my cluser, it was configured and purchased before I got here, so I had nothing to do with choosing its components but I have to admit that I'm not sure what I would have done differently. Cordially, Jon Forrest Unix Computing Support College of Chemistry 173 Tan Hall University of California Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720-1460 510-643-1032 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
