High Performance Computing Post: 302278831

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Special Forums UNIX and Linux Applications High Performance Computing High Performance Computing Post 302278831 by otheus on Wednesday 21st of January 2009 09:22:27 AM

01-21-2009

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So this problem used to be rather "simple". Just use some CPU metric (MPIS, FLOPS, SPECint, SPECfloat, whatever) and divide it by the cost of a computer. Then we had a clear choice: 2 CPUs per "1U" system. Now the choice has expanded to cores per chip and we have 2, 4, and even 8-way systems (AMD). You could build a rack of Sunx6400, each containing 64 cores. But we also shouldn't forget Sun's T1 processor line, with 128 "virtual" cores.

Further complicating the issue: cost is no longer just for the compute node. Now you have to consider the networking costs between them. 100 Mbit Ethernet switches are cheap, but may not be suitable for a cluster of very fast machines. Infiniband gives you great performance, but scaling is very expensive -- just the cabling alone can cost as much as your CPUs!

Further complications: the operating costs of cooling and electricity are not insignificant. For every watt used by the CPU, you can count on needing 2 watts to cool it (depends on the climate you're in). Thus, if every computer node requires 1.5 A, and you have 256 compute nodes, you will need 1.5 * 256 * 3 = 1152 Amps of power and maybe 2 30-ton chillers.

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chosts

chosts(1M)						  System Administration Commands						chosts(1M)

NAME

       chosts - expand cluster names into host names

SYNOPSIS

       $CLUSTER_HOME/bin/chosts name [name...]

DESCRIPTION

       The chosts utility expands the arguments into a list of host names.

OPERANDS

       The following operands are supported:

       name		   The parameter name can be a hostname or a cluster name. If name is a hostname, it is expanded to be a hostname. If name
			   is a cluster name, that is, an entry exists in the /etc/clusters database (or a NIS or NIS+ map), it is  expanded  into
			   the	list of hosts that make up that cluster, as specified in the database. The list is typically used by programs that
			   wish to operate on a list of hosts.

			   If an entry for clusters has been made in the /etc/nisswitch.conf file, then the order of lookups is controlled by that
			   entry. If there is no such file or no such entry, then the nameservice look up order is implicitly nis files.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWccon			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Evolving			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       ccp(1M), cconsole(1M), cports(1M), crlogin(1M), cssh(1M), ctelnet(1M), clusters(4), attributes(5)

Sun Cluster 3.2 						    8 Sep 2007								chosts(1M)