[GRASSLIST:1718] Re: clustering

[Eric Hillmuth]

I sort of figured it would come down to what you wanted to do with your cluster.
Mosix looks like a pretty sophisticated way of moving processes around as well a
more or less easy set up (as in no Grass recompiling necessary) but it also
looks like a Mosix cluster would have pretty limited uses as Ian describes.

Either way I'm interested to hear how Lars's efforts go.

"Willis, Ian (Ento, Canberra)" wrote:

> Mosix is most effective you have multiple processes, so if you were running
> the same program hundreds of times with a different dataset this may be good
> (think of flooding scenarios). If you are looking for a speedup of a single
> complex function and you have a Multiprocessor box thread the CPU intensive
> parts of the code. If you have a complex algorith that has little data
> dependency between the elements it may be suitable to split over a cluster
> using PVM or MPI.
> Its really a horses for courses approach.
>
> --
> Ian Willis
> Systems Administrator
> Division of Entomology CSIRO
> GPO Box 1700
> Canberra ACT 2601
> ph  02 6246 4391
> fax 02 6246 4000
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lars Bromley [mailto:lbromley at aaas.org]
> Sent: Saturday, 7 April 2001 7:55 AM
> To: rshepard at appl-ecosys.com; ehillmuth at digitalmeridian.net
> Cc: grasslist at baylor.edu
> Subject: [GRASSLIST:1711] Re: clustering
>
> MOSIX looks like it might allow me to run GRASS on a cluster without
> recompiling GRASS for multiple processors, am I right?
>
> I will indeed be trying this in the next week or so. I will be sure to
> report to the list what happens. Luckily, I work in a large bloated office
> environment which is fully caught up in perpetual windows upgrades, so older
> PCs are one thing I have plenty of. Actual GIS education, heck no, but old
> computers, no problem ;)
>
> Lars
>
> >>> Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com> 04/06/01 04:44PM >>>
> On Fri, 6 Apr 2001, Eric Hillmuth wrote:
>
> > I had been following the clustering discussion a few days ago and ran
> across
> > this site today:
> >
> > http://www.mosix.org/
> >
> > I wonder how useful this kind of clustering framework would be for GRASS
> > applications. It seems pretty straightforward to set up.
>
> Eric,
>
>   It certainly looks impressively easy! Now, if I had the spare cash to set
> up a bunch of linux boxes in a rack, I could test it. :-)
>
>   Worth looking at it detail, I suggest.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rich
>
> Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President
>
>                        Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
>             2404 SW 22nd Street | Troutdale, OR 97060-1247 | U.S.A.
>  + 1 503-667-4517 (voice) | + 1 503-667-8863 (fax) |
> rshepard at appl-ecosys.com

--
Eric Hillmuth
Principal
Digital Meridian
http://www.digitalmeridian.net
Phone: 303-809-8972
Fax: 303-443-9427