[nmglug] openmosix cluster update

Fri Mar 11 09:11:50 PST 2005

WARNING: long tedious reply!!!

I have a sarge installation which uses 2.4.26. it wasn't really 
necessary to have that rev, just made using the config file from /boot 
easy. So, in a nutshell...

i did not use fakeroot as security was really not a concern to me -- so 
installed the kernel as root, not src. also, i used IDE drives as i had 
a bitch of a time with SATA and didn't want to mess around with initrd.

for the first machine.
1. install default sarge, went through all the basic config steps and 
didn't install anything else.
2. put reservation in dhcp server for the MAC address for the NIC (not 
sure if a constant IP address was necessary, but what the hell)
3. apt-get install libncurses5-dev kernel-package wget ssh ftp ftpd 
kernel-source-2.4.26 bzip2
4. cd  /usr/src
5. tar -jxf kernel-source-2.4.26.tar.bz2
6. ln -s /usr/src/kernel-source-2.4.26 linux
7. wget 
http://cogent.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/openmosix/openMosix-2.4.26-1.bz2
8. cd linux
9. cat ../openMosix-2.4.26-1.bz2 | bunzip2 | patch -p1 -l
10. copy /boot/config-2.4.26-1-386 ./.config (this step is not necessary 
if you are confident you know which options to build into your kernel)
11. make menuconfig
12. enable openmosix support (the tutorial from intel's dan robbins 
suggests enabling the following options: openMOSIX process migration 
support, stricter security on openMOSIX ports, direct file system 
access, openMOSIX file system, poll/select exceptions on pipes. of 
these, only the second and last were actually available in my version of 
the patch)
13. make-kpkg --append-to-version=.<insert date and version here> 
kernel_image

14. cd ..
15. dpkg -i kernel-image-2.4.26-om1.<dateandversion from 
above>_10.00.Custom_i386.deb
16. reboot
17. apt-get install libmos libmos-dev openmosix openmosixview

that's it. node one up and running. of course a one node cluster is 
pretty common even without MOSIX, so i had two other machines plugged 
into the same switch. to eliminate the steps above, i copied the kernel 
image into a user's home directory (and renamed it, my ftp didn't like 
50+ character filenames. ymmv).

second and third machines
1. follow steps 1-3. if you know how to use dd to install a system over 
the network without installing an OS, i'd love to hear about it
2. ftp to the first node and copy the kernel image
3. mv the kernel image to /usr/src
4. step 15 -17 above

easy. but only works if you're hardware is all roughly similar. you can 
easily build machines with brand new hardware components from newegg for 
less than $400 each that should work fine (if you are really committed).

The cool openmosix view only works in X so pick a node and apt-get 
install xserver-xfree86 xserver-common kde. wait a bit and startx. then 
you can run openmosixview and see all the nodes. find a project that you 
want to use to distribute loads. i am currently making a movie with a 
bit of 3d work, so i'm using blender. there's quite a few ideas about 
how to use blender with an openMOSIX cluster, so that's where i am now.

hope this helps. if you're in albuquerque, let me know and i'll be happy 
to let you come by my office and take a look/play at some point. if you 
are shaking your head at some of my backwards-ass decsions, also let me 
know (really). i'm always happy to learn better ways to do things i've 
cocked up.

regards,
Bill

Tim Emerick wrote:

>Glad to hear you've gotten your openmosix cluster up and running.  I
>remembered you asking about openmosix a couple of months back which had
>gotten me thinking of clustering these P2's together.
>
>How did you end up doing it?  Did you just install sarge on each machine?  I
>attempted to recompile the kernel using the debian instructions from the site
>but my version of the Sarge install came with 2.4.27 which didn't have the
>patch yet (although the latest Knoppixcluster was using a patched 2.4.27
>kernel).
>
>I was looking at the instant cluster CD's on the openmosix.org website.  I
>liked the clusterknoppix approach but for some reason knoppix won't boot up
>on these machines...go figure.  ClusterKnoppix also was designed with the
>cluster on it's own lan (via 2 nic's) which includes it's own DCHP server and
>PXE boot images.  All in all a fairly impressive drop in place package.
>
>I also liked the CHAOS floppy boot approach.  I might burn the floppy image
>onto CD's for the slave nodes and disconnect the hard drives.  Use a full
>blown cluster patched debian kernel for the master machine.
>
>btw, if I didn't mention before, I'm looking to use my 8 P2-400's to sit in
>the garage and crunch BOINC projects (SETI & Predictor).  I've been
>vacillating between running as a cluster or just running them separately on
>each machine.  There appears to be much information on how to set up seti to
>run efficiently on openmosix but with the open mosix approach you really
>don't need to do anything to the application to have it run on openmosix.
>
>I would be interested to hear how you pieced your cluster together.
>
>Tim Emerick
>
>--- bill york <iago at pobox.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>success
>>
>>(sorry to interrupt the joviality re: power)
>>
>>my problem was not knowing how to use initrd. seems that sata drives 
>>appear as scsi drives and need a ramdisk to load the fs on the drive. i 
>>pussied out and (this is an advantage of having a lot of spare computers 
>>around) used machines with ide drives instead.
>>
>>patched the kernel. recompiled -- the default sarge installation is 
>>gratefully 2.4.26, the same as the latest mosix kernel patch. i could 
>>use the config file from /boot! packaged the new kernel, copied it to 
>>all nodes, installed openmosix with apt and /presto chango/.
>>
>>thanks everyone for your help! now if i can just find a use for this 
>>cluster....
>>
>>W
>>
>>
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>>
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