Hardware Information for Installation of SCore

Hardware Requirements

• a group of compute host machines, and

• a cluster server used for the following purposes:
  • a file server for SCore cluster administration
    the Cluster Database Server, scoreboard, and the Compute Host Lock Server, msgbserv are running on this computer

  • software development compilation

  • running cluster maintenance daemons

For instance, if you want to build a cluster of 8 compute hosts, you need to buy 9 computers. Though we recommend having a cluster server, you may install software for the cluster server onto one of the compute hosts, so that you don't need to buy a computer for the server.

A router is also necessary if you plan to connect the cluster to a LAN.

All processor hosts forming a homogeneous cluster should be of the same architecture and use the same version of the operating system.

Platform and Architecture Requirements

1. Basic Parts

   Processors

   • Intel Pentium4, Xeon
   • AMD Opteron

   Configuration

   Single or SMP

   Memory

   More than 64MB. Memory size depends on you applications. The SCore system software uses just a few MBytes
   
   

   Disk

   4 GB or more for each compute host, 7 GB or more for the server host

   	Server host	Compute host
   System	7 GB	3 GB
   User	~	~
   ChkPnt	0 B	1GB or more
   Total	7 GB or more	4 GB or more

   
   

   Ethernet Card and HUB/Switch

   We strongly recommend using an Ethernet switch or switching HUB instead of a HUB. If you use a HUB, you will not gain the benefit of parallelism.

   The following network cards have been supported on PM/Ethernet:
   

   • Intel Pro 1000
   • Broadcom Tigon3

   
   If you want to use other Ethernet cards, you must modify the ethernet drivers for the network cards.

   VGA

   The SCore system does not require a VGA card in compute hosts, but requires the card in the server host. Note that most BIOS require a VGA card and a keyboard.
   
   

   CD-ROM

   The Eeasy Installation Tool 2.0 is required CD-ROM drives on the the all cpmpute hosts, and CD writable drive on the server hosts.

   DVD

   The Eeasy Installation Tool 2.0 is required SCore DVD image. If you get iso image by the network, you must loop mount the iso image on the server. Or if you get SCore DVD, you moust mount the DVD on the server. If you use iso image by the network, you don't need DVD drive.

2. Optional Parts
   • Myrinet: Myrinet Cards and Switch
     
     

     Myrinet Types	Myrinet NICs	Myrinet Switches
     Myrinet (1.28 Gbps Link)	M2M-PCI32, M2M-PCI64A-2, M2M-PCI64A-4, M2L-PCI32, M2L-PCI64A-2,M2L-PCI64A-4, or M3M-PCI64B-2	M3F-SW8, M3-SW16-8S, M3-SPINE-8S, M2M-DUAL-SW8, M2M-OCT-SW8, or M2M-SW16
     Myrinet2000 or Myrinet XP or Myrinet 2XP (2.0 Gbps Linx)	M3F-PCI64C-2, M3F-PCI64B-2, M3S-PCI64B-2, M3M-PCI64B-2,M3F-PCIXD-2 or M3F2-PCIXE-2	M3F-SW8, M3S-SW8, M3M-SW8, M3F-SW16, M3S-SW16, M3M-SW16 Switches or Combinations of Enclosures (M3-E16, M3-E32, M3-E64) and Switch Line Cards(M3-SW-16-8F, M3-SW-16-8S, M3-SW-16-8M, M3-SPINE-8F, M3-SPINE-8S)

     
     Note that M2M-PCI64A-4, M2L-PCI64A-2, and M2L-PCI64A-4 have not been tested in Real World Computing Partnership.

     To see the Myrinet network configuration, see the PMvII Myrinet Conf(5) man page. If you install the SCore system using the Easy Installation Tool, see these configuration pages:

     Myrinet: Myrinet Configurations

     Myrinet2000: Myrinet2000 Configurations

Testing Platform of SCore in PC Cluster Consortium

Obtain Network Information

server IP Address	192.168.0.2
comp0 to comp7 IP Addresses	192.168.0.100 -- 192.168.55.107
Netmask	255.255.255.0
Default Gateway IP address	192.168.0.1
Primary Nameserver IP address	192.168.0.1
Domain Name	pccluster.org
Server Hostname	server.pccluster.org
NIS domain name	score