Nifty Tom Mitchell wrote: > On Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 01:08:27PM +0200, Tomislav Maric wrote: >> Mark Hahn wrote: >>>> I've seen Centos mentioned a lot in connection to HPC, am I making a >>>> mistake with Ubuntu?? >>> distros differ mainly in their desktop decoration. for actually >>> getting cluster-type work done, the distro is as close to irrelevant >>> as imaginable. a matter of taste, really. it's not as if the distros >>> provide the critical components - they merely repackage the kernel, >>> libraries, middleware, utilities. wiring yourself to a distro does >>> affect when you can or have to upgrade your system, though. >>> > > An interesting perspective is to have a cluster built > on the same distro as your desktop because all the > work (compile/edit-->a.out) can just run on your cluster. > If you have a personal bias to having Ubuntu under your > fingers and mouse then a cluster based on the same version > of Ubuntu can make sense. This can apply to the 32/64 bit > choice too. > > For this reason alone it can make a lot of sense for a > small personal cluster to match the desktop. > > Other distros like RHEL/CentOS/ScientificLinux do have > some advantages in things that matter to big groups > like kickstart support package management and server specific > tools and support for the latest higher end hardware. > For large clusters the personal station biases are all > over the map for the user community so the compass points > to server distros. > > Another perspective is compiler support. If you have a superior > compiler for your applications then the cluster distro should be > "compatible" with the compiler. Some compilers can improve > run time by 40% and quickly tip the balance. Your benchmarks will tell.... > > I like Ubuntu because it facilitates my WiFi and graphics support better than > some others. It is also quite current in image tools so it is the distro > I connect my camera to more often than my other systems. I can also > ssh into my CentOS boxen to other types of work that do not depend on eye > candy. > > >
OK, I guess then Ubuntu will suffice for a 12 node Cluster. :) Anyway, I'll try it and see. Thanks! Best regards, Tomislav _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, [email protected] sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
