This page contains links to documentation on all three types of Linux clustering, as well as general Linux documentation that you might find useful while dealing with the normal operating system aspects of Linux.
Part 1: Provides a general intro to Linux clustering technologies available and an intro to openMosix.
Part 2: A guide through the actual setup of an openMosix cluster.
Part 3: How to use openMosix to attack various computing challenges.
The Beowulf FAQ: A FAQ compiled from questions and answers seen flying around on the Beowulf Mailing List.
The Beowulf HOWTO: This document introduces the Beowulf Supercomputer architecture and provides background information on parallel programming, including links to other more specific documents, and web pages.
Cluster Compute: Cluster Compute is a site put together which contains some easy to follow steps on how to make a cheap, and very compact cluster.
Clustering 101 Tutorial: This Clustering tutorial by IBM is a "basic '101' tutorial." It takes approximately 30 minutes to complete, but will cover what clusters are, and how to achieve high avilability, failiver, redundancy and replication. It will also explain resiliency, load balancing, CSM, and resource sharing.
Creating an SSI Cluster using UML: This HOWTO tells you how to create a Single System Image (SSI) cluster of virtual User Mode Linux (UML) machines. Besides the explanation and demonstration of the SSI/UML cluster, it contains advanced information such as how to build your own SSI/UML kernels, ramdisks, and root images, and also information on how to move to a real hardware-based SSI cluster.
Debian Beowulf HOWTOs: Adam Powell, an Assistant Professor of Engineering at MIT, has put together some HOWTOs for Beowful technology for the Debian distribution. At the bottom of this page, which is a general Debian HOWTO page, there are links to three Debian Beowulf HOWTOs, titled "Getting Started," "MPI Debian HOWTO," and "PETSc Debian Package."
Debian Beowulf Wiki: This is being put together by the maintainer of the Debian Beowulf HOWTOs (see link directly above this one), and eventually will replace that. The Wiki interface allows for and encourages community contributions and participation in the site.
How to Build a Beowulf Cluster: This page outlines the process needed to install and configure Linux for use in a cluster environment.
Linux Cluster Architecture: Alex Vrenios, author of the book Linux Cluster Architecture, has recently given presentations two a couple of LUGs discussing some of the material he covers in the book, and has sent us the pdf of the presentation for others to see and use here. It is a high level overview of what he discusses in the book, the architecture of Linux clusters. The file is 1.8 MB.
Linux Cluster HOWTO: This document describes in specific detail the author's experience building and maintaining Linux clusters for use in the lab he does research at. He talks specifically about his hardware, software, desktop, public server, etc, details.
Linux Clustering with MOSIX: This is a tutorial from IBM on how to build a MOSIX cluster. It requires registering for the tutorial, which will take about 2 hours to complete, but you can take it online, or download a PDF or zip file of the tutorial.
Linux HPC Cluster Installation: This Redbook from IBM will give the reader a basic understanding of Linux clustering technology, terminology, and installation of a Beowulf style cluster on x86 (IBM xSeries) hardware.
Linux Parallel Processing HOWTO: Even though it is a few years old, conceptually, it is an interesting read and a good place to start if you've never done any type of parallel processing before.
openMosix Series: The Intel Developer Services site has a three part series on openMosix by Daniel Robbins. The three parts can be found at the following links:
Part 2(requires Intel Developer Series registration)
Part 3(requires Intel Developer Series registration)
SCL Cluster Cookbook: The folks at the Scalable Computing Laboratory (SCL) at the Ames Laboratory have put together an easy to follow guide to building a cluster for parallel computation. It covers all steps, from selecting motherboards and processors, to high speed interconnects, to which operating system is right for you, libraries, compilers, putting it all together, and example applications.
User Mode openMosix HOWTO: This HOWTO covers how the author created the UML (User-Mode Linux) / openMosix patch, how to set it up, some debugging info, and more about how to run a virtual openMosix cluster in User-Mode Linux.
High Availability of LVS: This explains the high availability aspects of the Linux Virtual Server project.
Linux Virtual Server HOWTO: Version 1.0 of this document was released on March 3rd, 2001. It is available in text, postscript, or html format, as well as an sgml tarball which you can use to generate the different formats.
LVS Documentation Page: This is LVS's documentation page on their website. It contains presentations and papers on LVS that were presented at various conferences, as well as links to manuals and other documentation.
Cheap IP Takeover: This article discusses how, with ping, bash, and a simple network utility, you can accomplish IP takeover with relative ease, which is really the core of high availability.
Designing a Linux Cluster: This was a series of documents written by Stephen Tweedie. "This is not a comprehensive design spec for clustering. Rather, it is a set of miscellaneous documents including both discussion documents and work-in-progress design drafts, not for a whole clustering system, but for a core set of APIs intended to provide a comprehensive and robust infrastructure on top of which true clustering services can be layered."
Linux FailSafe Documentation: This is SGI's page of documentation about FailSafe, including an Administrator's Guide, a Programmer's Guide, and Architecture layout, and some presentations.
Advanced Filesystem Implementor's Guide: IBM's developerWorks has published a six part series which aims to give the reader an understanding of some of the advanced filesystems available in the 2.4 series of kernels. Among the ones discussed are ReiserFS, XFS, JFS, GFS, and others. Here are links to the six parts:
ClusterWorX whitepaper: This is a whitepaper put together by Linux NetworX to explain in more detail the workings of their ClusterWorX management software.
Enhanced Cluster Tools for Linux Overview: There is an overview of ECT for Linux over at the IBM alphaWorks site. It briefly covers how it works, and contains a link to download it.
ICE Box whitepaper: The ICE Box (Integrated Cluster Environment) is a piece of hardware that fits into a standard 19 inch rack without taking up any useable space, and facilitates management of the hardware of the cluster by allowing easy access via serial and data connectsions, as well as power control.
Linux Clustering In Depth: This article is from Linux Magazine from October 2000, but it is an overview of what Linux clustering is, talking about high performance clusters, high availability, and load balancing. While some of the specific information is dated, talking about such things as Piranha, which no longer exists, the general overview is a good explanation for people just starting out.
Linux DiskOnModule HOWTO: This HOWTO describes how to put together a somewhat specialized embedded Linux solution, using a 16 MB DiskOnModule to create a diskless (a.k.a. solid-state) node. This can be quite useful for making diskless Linux cluster nodes.
Linux Documentation Project: LDP is the home of guides, FAQs, HOWTOs, man pages, and various other information. This is a great place to find information and documentation on most anything Linux related.
LVM HOWTO: The Logical Volume Manager HOWTO, which is stored at the LDP.
PC/104 Linux Minicluster miniHowTo: A group at one of the research facilities at Sandia National Laboratories has built a four node minicluster out of PC/104 modules. This miniHowTo explains what they did and how they did it.
xCAT Overview: There is an overview of xCAT over at the IBM alphaWorks site. It explains a bit about the features of xCAT and a brief overview of how it works.
