Documentation of Specification for

Seattle University Physics Department

Beowulf Cluster


Written by Mike Clement, Summer 2002
Originally translated into HTML by Kevin Griffin, Fall 2002


Copyright (C) 2002 Michael R. Clement.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with Invariant Sections being "The GNU Free Documentation License", with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License" (see GNU Free Documentation License).


Cluster Overview:


The SUBC is consists of four nodes and a server, all identical in hardware except where stated. There is a single channel ethernet connecting all machines, and is separate from any external network. The server has an additional ethernet interface, which connects it to the university network, and the Internet.


Hardware:

  CPU:  AMD Athlon XP 1800+

  Motherboard: Asus A7V266-E

  L1 Cache: 64k

  L2 Cache: 256k

  RAM:  512MB DDR-RAM

  HDD:  30GB UDMA 33 (ST340016A)

  NIC:  National Semiconductor DP83815 (100-base-T)

  Switch: Netgear FS108 (100-base-T)

 

OS:   Red Hat Linux v7.1 (Seawolf) generic kernel v2.4.2-2


Network:

  Server Name: beastmaster

  Server IP: 10.0.0.1

  Node Names: babybeast1 - babybeast4

  Node IPs: 10.0.0.2 - 10.0.0.5


Server Configuration: Standard Gnome desktop environment, workstation

  Daemons running: nfsd, xinetd (timed)  -relevant to clustering

  NFS exports:  /usr/local /home /etc


Node Configuration: Custom - minimal

  Daemons running:  anacron, atd, crond, keytable, kudzu, netfs, network,

     nfslock, random, rawdevices, rlogin, rsh, sshd, syslog,

   xinetd (rsh, rlogin)

  X and gdm disabled

  NFS mounts:  beastmaster:/usr/local -> /usr/local

     beastmaster:/home -> /home

     beastmaster:/etc -> /etc/beastmaster

  rsh & rlogin running in trusted (passwordless) mode for all users except root

  Custom cron jobs to sync time and user accounts to beastmaster