30 node Sun Grid Engine Cluster using CentOS Linux.

Quick view of a 30 node (each with two processors and 2gig or more of RAM) Sun Grid Engine cluster I built and maintain for some of the people I support at JPL. I'm in the process of upgrading everything from Fedora Core 3 to CentOS 5. Never again will I use Fedora for something important - great hardware support (better than Ubuntu) but Fedora's life cycle is too short. Long term patch support is a must for NASA / JPL. Would love to use Redhat, but it's too expensive for us. :(

Filmed with an iPhone 3Gs. Visit http://www.kevitivity.com for more.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• kevitivity
• Sun
• grid engine linux
• server
• dell
• cluster
• NASA
• jpl
• centos
• fedora
• redhat
• oracle
• rack
• node
• ram

[MrBS4]

Is it a public server for their website? I am curious why they replace the OS since I assume they do the patch by themselves rather then rely on community support like general users.

Still I am surprise you mention you guys have constraint on budget since I assumed these kinds of R&D institution should be well funded. :)

[Kevitivity]

The previous OS was EOLed in 06, so no more patches. But more than that, the latest version of Matlab required a more up-to-date version of Linux.

JPL is huge, but made up of hundreds of small groups with differing projects. And each of those groups has to individually find it's own funding through a complicated proposal process.

I can tell you this, I'll never use Fedora (or any other Linux with a short life cycle) again in a production environment...

[Katalyzt]

Upgrading everything from Fedora Core 3 to CentOS 5... Have you already done this successfully in a test environment? If not, that could get ugly if you are also trying to preserve certain user environments.

Katalyzt

[Kevitivity]

We operate on a shoestring budget and we're short on time - so our only option at this point is an upgrade. I have will have to deal with the various issues (and you are right, there will be issues) as they happen...

[Jestersage]

What's your opinion of Ubuntu LTS, especially 10.04?

[Knickz0r]

You better not spill that drink over your systems...

[ibadkureshi]

i recently (Oct 09) shifted all our systems from FC5 to CentOS5.4 too. How did you image your nodes? manual method or sysimager? are your nodes able to handle X?

[MrBS4]

Well, you can said that again. A OS only support for 13 months is too short for a production environment that long term support is more desirable. I guess rolling release is the one can best suit such needed. :) But for a computer dummy like me will work just find. (I am using Fedora now)

Cheer!