Well, there are actually two kinds of clusters. Parallel Processing Clusters or
'Beowulf' Clusters and Application Clusters. Beowulf clusters are a series of
cheap PCs that are connected together thru fast Ethernet and run applications in
parallel with each other. They are a cheap solution to super computers in that
you have the processing power equal to the total number of nodes minus some
overhead processing. The key point here is that only one node out of all the
cluster members is used to access the cluster. A second type of cluster more
commonly used in a corporate environment is the application cluster. This is
where a group of Linux PCs are all connected using Ethernet, but all are
accessible from the network and used. They provide fault-tolerance,
high-availability, and usually load balancing support to a number of specific
applications such as database, web hosting, and any other application that needs
24x7x365 uptime. They usually access a SAN or some other shared storage solution
so each node in the cluster can access the same information quickly. A good
example of this is Oracle's 9i database running on a Redhat Advanced Server
Cluster.

I'm sure this group is only interested in the Beowulf type cluster.

http://www.beowulf.org

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-kclug@marauder.illiana.net
> [mailto:owner-kclug@marauder.illiana.net]On Behalf Of Seth Dimbert
> Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 11:47 AM
> To: kclug@kclug.org
> Subject: RE: cluster project
>
>
> <NEWBIE>
> Am I the only LugNut who doesn't really know what a "cluster" is?
>
> Could someone enlighten me, please?
> </NEWBIE>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-kclug@marauder.illiana.net
> [mailto:owner-kclug@marauder.illiana.net]On Behalf Of Jared Smith
> Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 1:30 PM
> To: kclug@kclug.org
> Subject: cluster project
>
>
> What news?
>
> I am willing and able to build a small KCLUG cluster
> website, allowing the discussion to be focused. We
> had three proposals for location, and some hub hardware
> has been donated, as well as it sounds like up to
> twenty P100-era PCs and network cards. It sounds
> like it will happen.
>
> Would a small site running an online discussion
> forum (no ads, very simple layout) be useful, or should
> we keep the project entirely within the KCLUG mailing
> list and meetings? Both formats have their merits.
>
> -Jared
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>