----- "Jim Lux" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Quoting Chris Samuel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, on Fri 04 Apr 2008 12:47:09 AM PDT: > > > Seriously though, my concern is about the impact of the > > essential anti-virus, anti-malware and anti-spyware > > software on each node of the system be ? > > Why would you need such a thing? Are you reading email and browsing > the web from you cluster nodes? Do you have users downloading the > latest e-birthday card or nifty *free* game on the nodes. I think > not. They're sitting behind a head node or similar.
Maybe, or maybe they're submitting their compiled executable from a Windows GUI on their desktop, which just happens to be the same machine that they use for reading email, Internet Exploder, et. al. > I wouldn't put AV software of any kind on the nodes. heck, if you > have a problem, you'd just wipe and reinstall from known good media. True, but without A/V software you'd need to rely on other methods to detect that you had a problem (node dies, your IDS system picks up outbound SMTP, IRC, etc, connections, etc). > > Who could seriously consider running *any* Windows box these > > days without them ? > > If you're running quasi-real time software (e.g. Labview) doing > instrument controls? Hmm, I suppose so, but to be honest it'd scare the daylights out of me. :-) > It's perfectly reasonable to run Windows machines without virus > checkers, etc., if you have a fairly decent software configuration > management process in place. Academic researchers do seem to have this ability to accidentally get around these sorts of things, unless you've removed the floppy, CD/CD and plugged the USB ports with glue.. :-) > > Not least on a system that is designed to have random people > > login in and run their applications on. > > Relatively few clusters fit in that category. Maybe, but most of the ones that I deal with do.. cheers! Chris -- Christopher Samuel - (03) 9925 4751 - Systems Manager The Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing P.O. Box 201, Carlton South, VIC 3053, Australia VPAC is a not-for-profit Registered Research Agency _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
