High Performance Linux Clusters With Oscar, Rocks,openmosix, And Mpi (Paperback)

Description:

To the outside world, a "supercomputer" appears to be a single system. In fact, it's a cluster of computers that share a local area network and have the ability to work together on a single problem as a team. Many businesses used to consider supercomputing beyond the reach of their budgets, but new Linux applications have made high-performance clusters more affordable than ever. These days, the promise of low-cost supercomputing is one of the main reasons many businesses choose Linux over other operating systems.

This new guide covers everything a newcomer to clustering will need to plan, build, and deploy a high-performance Linux cluster. The book focuses on clustering for high-performance computation, although much of its information also applies to clustering for high-availability (failover and disaster recovery). The book discusses the key tools you'll need to get started, including good practices to use while exploring the tools and growing a system. You'll learn about planning, hardware choices, bulk installation of Linux on multiple systems, and other basic considerations. Then, you'll learn about software options that can save you hours--or even weeks--of deployment time.

Since a wide variety of options exist in each area of clustering software, the author discusses the pros and cons of the major free software projects and chooses those that are most likely to be helpful to new cluster administrators and programmers. A few of the projects introduced in the book include:

• MPI, the most popular programming library for clusters. This book offers simple but realistic introductory examples along with some pointers for advanced use.
  
• OSCAR and Rocks, two comprehensive installation and administrative systems
  
• openMosix (a convenient tool for distributing jobs), Linux kernel extensions that migrate processes transparently for load balancing
  
• PVFS, one of the parallel filesystems that make clustering I/O easier
  
• C3, a set of commands for administering multiple systems

Ganglia, OpenPBS, and cloning tools (Kickstart, SIS and G4U) are also covered. The book looks at cluster installation packages (OSCAR & Rocks) and then considers the core packages individually for greater depth or for folks wishing to do a custom installation. Guidelines for debugging, profiling, performance tuning, and managing jobs from multiple users round out this immensely useful book.

 

Preface
Part I. An Introduction to Clusters
1. Cluster Architecture
      Modern Computing and the Role of Clusters
      Types of Clusters
      Distributed Computing and Clusters
      Limitations
      My Biases
2. Cluster Planning
      Design Steps
      Determining Your Cluster's Mission
      Architecture and Cluster Software
      Cluster Kits
      CD-ROM-Based Clusters
      Benchmarks
3. Cluster Hardware
      Design Decisions
      Environment
4. Linux for Clusters
      Installing Linux
      Configuring Services
      Cluster Security
Part II. Getting Started Quickly
5. openMosix
      What is openMosix?
      How openMosix Works
      Selecting an Installation Approach
      Installing a Precompiled Kernel
      Using openMosix
      Recompiling the Kernel
      Is openMosix Right for You?
6. OSCAR
      Why OSCAR?
      What's in OSCAR
      Installing OSCAR
      Security and OSCAR
      Using switcher
      Using LAM/MPI with OSCAR
7. Rocks
      Installing Rocks
      Managing Rocks
      Using MPICH with Rocks
Part III. Building Custom Clusters
8. Cloning Systems
      Configuring Systems
      Automating Installations
      Notes for OSCAR and Rocks Users
9. Programming Software
      Programming Languages
      Selecting a Library
      LAM/MPI
      MPICH
      Other Programming Software
      Notes for OSCAR Users
      Notes for Rocks Users
10. Management Software
      C3
      Ganglia
      Notes for OSCAR and Rocks Users
11. Scheduling Software
      OpenPBS
      Notes for OSCAR and Rocks Users
12. Parallel Filesystems
      PVFS
      Using PVFS
      Notes for OSCAR and Rocks Users
Part IV. Cluster Programming
13. Getting Started with MPI
      MPI
      A Simple Problem
      An MPI Solution
      I/O with MPI
      Broadcast Communications
14. Additional MPI Features
      More on Point-to-Point Communication
      More on Collective Communication
      Managing Communicators
      Packaging Data
15. Designing Parallel Programs
      Overview
      Problem Decomposition
      Mapping Tasks to Processors
      Other Considerations
16. Debugging Parallel Programs
      Debugging and Parallel Programs
      Avoiding Problems
      Programming Tools
      Rereading Code
      Tracing with printf
      Symbolic Debuggers
      Using gdb and ddd with MPI
      Notes for OSCAR and Rocks Users
17. Profiling Parallel Programs
      Why Profile?
      Writing and Optimizing Code
      Timing Complete Programs
      Timing C Code Segments
      Profilers
      MPE
      Customized MPE Logging
      Notes for OSCAR and Rocks Users
Part V. Appendix
             References
      Books
      URLs
Index