Oops. e-mailed to the wrong address. The cat's out of the bag now! No big deal. I was 50/50 about CC-ing the list, anyway. Just remove the phrase "off-list" in the first sentence, and that last bit about not posting to the list because...
Great. I'll never get a job that requires security clearance now! ;) -- Prentice <---- still can't figure out how to use e-mail properly Prentice Bisbal wrote: > Gerry, > > I wanted to let you know off-list that I'm going through the same > problems right now. I thought you'd like to know you're not alone. We > purchased a cluster from the *allegedly* same vendor. The PXE boot and > keyboard errors were the least of our problems. > > First, our cluster was delayed 2 months due to shortages of the network > hardware we specified. It was not the vendor standard for clustering, > but still a brand they resold. > > When it did arrive, the doors were damaged by the inadequately equipped > delivery co. > > When the technician arrived to finish setting up the cluster, he > discovered that the IB cables provided were too short to be within spec: > the bend radius would be too tight, and were too short to be supported > from above the connectors. > > And, the final problem I'm going to mention: the fiber network cables to > connect our ethernet switches to each other (we have Ethernet and IB > networks in this cluster) were missing. > > It's been over two weeks since our cluster arrived, and one week since > the technician noticed these shortages and reported them. Still haven't > had these problems rectified, and the technician will have to fly to our > site again in a couple weeks to complete the installation. > > I'm writing an article about this experience for Doug to publish. I > haven't posted this to the mailing list b/c I'm not sure what my > management will be happy with me sharing (the article will be reviewed > by them before publishing). > > -- > Prentice > > >> We recently purchased a set of hardware for a cluster from a hardware >> vendor. We've encountered a couple of interesting issues with bringing >> the thing up that I'd like to get group comments on. Note that the RFP >> and negotiations specified this system was for a cluster installation, >> so there would be no misunderstanding... >> >> 1. We specified "No OS" in the purchase so that we could install CentOS >> as our base. We got a set of systems with a stub OS, and an EULA for >> the diagnostics embedded on the disk. After clicking thru the EULA, it >> tells us we have no OS on the disk, but does not fail to PXE. >> >> 2. BIOS had a couple of interesting defaults, including warn on >> keyboard error (Keyboard? Not intentionally. This is a compute node, >> and should never require a keyboard. Ever.) We also find the BIOS is >> set to boot from hard disk THEN PXE. But due to item 1, above, we never >> can fail over to PXE unless we load up a keyboard and monitor, and hit >> F12 to drop to PXE. >> >> In discussions with our sales rep, I'm told that we'd have had to pay >> extra to get a real bare hard disk, and that, for a fee, they'd have >> been willing to custom-configure the BIOS. OK, with the BIOS this isn't >> too unreasonable: They have a standard BIOS for all systems and if you >> want something special, paying for it's the norm... But, still, this is >> a CLUSTER installation we were quoted, not a desktop. >> >> Also, I'm now told that "almost every customer" ordered their cluster >> configuration service at several kilobucks per rack. Since the team I'm >> working with has some degree of experience in configuring and installing >> hardware and software on computational clusters, now measured in at >> least 10 separate cluster installations, this seemed like an unnecessary >> expense. However, we're finding vendor gotchas that are annoying at the >> least, and sometimes cause significant work-around time/effort. >> >> Finally, our sales guy yesterday was somewhat baffled as to why we'd >> ordered without OS, and further why we were using Linux over Windows for >> HPC. Not trying to revive the recent rant-fest about Windows HPC >> capabilities, can anyone cite real HPC applications generally run on >> significant clusters (I'll accept Cornell's work, although I remain >> personally convinced that the bulk of their Windows HPC work has been >> dedicated to maintaining grant funding rather than doing real work)? >> >> No, I won't identify the vendor. >> -- >> Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu >> Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University >> Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.862.3982 FAX: 979.862.3983 >> Office: 1700 Research Parkway Ste 160, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843 > -- Prentice _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
