Help building a...(server/cluster/farm/folder?)

[cybergold]

I have some extra procs layin about, (8)x1Gig Tbird (AMT3B) and (4)x1.2Gig Tbird (AMS3B).
I'm looking at building a cluster/farm although I want it to behave more like a server. I realize I could just build a regular server for files but I would like the challenge of trying a cluster and starting down the Linux path.

Here are my needs:
File server/Print server for 3 office computers and 6 home computers. I would also like to have it be a firewall and router for these computers as well. If possible I would like to dedicate 2 of the blades/nodes to full time folding and the rest to background folding. All of the client machines are under the same roof.

Here is what I've slapped together first glance for a hardware list.

Hard Drives

SAMSUNG 40GB 7200RPM Light and Slim IDE Hard Drive, Model SP0411N

$50.00each

$600.00extended

Memory (System Memory)

Rosewill 184-Pin 256MB DDR PC-2100, Model RW266/256 - Retail
I
$17.99each

$215.88extended

Motherboards - AMD

PCChips "M811LU" KT266A Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL

$27.25each

$327.00extended

Power Supplies

Allied ATX 200W Power Supply AL-B200SFX ***Best for eMachine***

$20.00each

$240.00extended

Product total: $1,382.88

I started looking at openMosix because it turns the cluster into an SMP system. This is where I'm at thusfar. Those with experience would be held in high esteem if you could direct me from here. Also I realize the hardware choices are on the cheap but the WAF has finally been given and this is just the first foray.
Thanks

 

[neisius]

have you thought about setting up one to fill your file server needs and then run fold-server on the rest? It would save on hard drives...maybe spend that money on more ram. Remember SMP will not fold one WU faster, it will just let you run more instances of F@H.

 

[cybergold]

Nope! Hadn't given that a single thought, but that's why I'm posting here first.

 

[ikellensbro]

You can also get Fortrons for the same price each as the Allieds, as Fortrons are a lot more reliable than Allied (or so Ive heard). http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104988

 

[cybergold]

More reliable sounds good.
Thanks

 

[neisius]

http://fold-server.sourceforge.net/ if you haven't checked it out yet. Sounds like it the best game in town for diskless F@H farming.

 

[rogue_jedi]

yeah, fold server looks like what you'd want. except i don't think it'd be good as a fileserver in its current form... you can talk to unhappy_mage about that. it doesn't have a firewall built in, either. he's working on iptables now, but it isn't there yet. you'd probably end up running a fileserver box (fedora, debian, w/e) and a foldserver box for the rest to netboot off of. if the motherboards don't netboot, get a bunch of cheap floppies (drives).

get the fortrons. i will personally hunt you down (u_m can help there, too... hehe) and either a)kill/injure you and take the hardware or b)make you buy them anyways if you get allied PSUs.

don't get those harddrives. get (maybe) one for the foldserver, then a few 200gb drives or whatever for your fileserver. you'll also want a beefier PSU for the fileserver. for the clients, you could even consider getting a few 300W or so fortrons and running 2 boards off of each. the foldserver will likely only require a 250W or so PSU, and the fileserver... depends on # of disks.

get 512mb memory for each machine. WUs are getting bigger, not smaller, and you get better support for big WUs (which means big point values) with more memory. the foldserver doesn't require more than that (it could run in 64mb if it wasn't folding) because it has swap. but i'd recommend 512mb in each box. u_m does too.

 

[rodsfree]

Or if you run out of options....
(cough, cough) some of us would be willing to give any lonely procs new homes.

I'm looking at the fileserver thing my self. (getting paranoid about loosing my p0r... ah, er, movies ) I'm planning on letting it run one instance of F@H while it isn't doing any serving. The client is really great at giving back the clock cycles when another application needs them. And a fileserver for a small SOHO network isn't really busy until you start running backups and imaging the other pc's to it.

As far as router/firewall goes... if you don't have a big network then buy the hardware kind. Mine is built into my DSL modem. I have a 5 port switch after that and it works pretty good. I could put a larger switch on it and I probably will when I get farming.

The diskless boxen that boot from the fold server will have their own switch. And DCHP duties will be handled by the fold-server. One NIC in the server connects to the farm and the second NIC connects to the rest of your network. So your network will see the whole farm as only 1 IP address.

unhappy_mage will correct any of this I got wrong, but I believe that I got it right... I been learning...

 

[cybergold]

Never heard of Allied PSU's wouldn't go with anything but fortrons.
lol thx
The client's are already in existence, a few prebuilts, a few whitebox, a laptop, etc...
I was looking at using this stuff to make one unit, hence the desire to run it as an SMP unit. I'm going for something that operates more like one "computer". That would make it easier to have it function as a server. Being that it is a cluster it will afford me the opportunity to learn and fiddle with the computing power of the combined system, ie if I build seperate boxes that ability goes away. I realize it won't speed up folding as each WU gets sent to a seperate node. But on the otherhand, that means up to a dozen WU's crunching at a time. Most of what I've read about clusters say that each node should be fairly closely spec'd that's why I was going with the dozen small drives. I have a decent network set up with a couple of daisy chained routers but I wanted to give this "cluster as server" running a linux distro a shot at taking up some of the proxy duties. Once again I'm just doing this to tinker. I've never built a server, a linux box, and certainly never a cluster, so I'm throwin it all together in one build.

Thanks for the advice and keep it coming.