On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 5:41 PM, Mark Hahn<h...@mcmaster.ca> wrote: >> allows global cross mounts from ~300 compute nodes) There is a variety >> of codes we run; some latency sensitive and others bandwidth >> sensitive. > > if you're sensitive either way, you're going to be unhappy with Gb.
I am still testing sensitivity but I suspect I am sensitive either way. > IMO, you'd be best to configure your scheduler to never spread an MPI > job across switches, Good idea. I was thinking about it. Might need to tweak my PBS scheduler. >and then just match the backbone to the aggregate IO > bandwidth your NFS storage can support. That brings me to another important question. Any hints on speccing the head-node? Especially the kind of storage I put in on the head node. I need around 1 Terabyte of storage. In the past I've uses RAID5+SAS in the server. Mostly for running jobs that access their I/O via files stored centrally. For muscle I was thinking of a Nehalem E5520 with 16 GB RAM. Should I boost the RAM up? Or any other comments. It is tricky to spec the central node. Or is it more advisable to go for storage-box external to the server for NFS-stores and then figure out a fast way of connecting it to the server. Fiber perhaps? -- Rahul _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
