Hey folks does anyone know anything about setting up a small 3 or 4 node cluster using (hopefully) some NIC Ethernet cards and some crossover cables, and windows XP? I want to see if I can do this. Thanks.
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Hey folks does anyone know anything about setting up a small 3 or 4 node cluster using (hopefully) some NIC Ethernet cards and some crossover cables, and windows XP? I want to see if I can do this. Thanks.
Depending on your application, building a small 3-4 node cluster is fairly straight forward. You can simply network the 4 computers together through a hub. Now as for programming the nodes, thats where it gets complicated...
There are several ways you can connect the machines. The first, and probably simplest, is to just connect all 4 machines to a hub. This is a simple cluster, although some would argue thats its not a 'true' cluster, for purposes of getting work done as opposed to mental masturbation it will perform as needed. This configuration has one advantage - easy to set up. No bells and whistles here, just a plain old network of computers.
Are you so particular about XP? With my knowledge, I could build a simple MPI-LINUX cluster at home late last year. Could find a lot of help on the net too..
Well, I've heard that you can use Windows Server 2003, anyone have any experience with that? I have procured a *cough* copy, but my dim-witted supplier got me a Polish version... which is really funny...