On the building of the next generation integrated environment for Beowulf clusters

Abstract

Since their beginning in a NASA project around 1994, Beowulf clusters have become one of the most important classes of high performance computing systems. Although this platform has been widely used for several years, it is still difficult to build a large Beowulf cluster. The reason for this is the lack of tools that allow people to effectively maintain the system and develop applications. This problem significantly reduces the benefit gained from a Beowulf system. In this paper, the design of the next generation integrated environment for Beowulf clusters, called SCE (Scalable Cluster Environment), is presented. The goal of the SCE project is to build a powerful, scalable, portable, and easy to use cluster environment. The paper discusses the important issues in designing a good cluster environment and proposes a solution to these issues. SCE design has been used to demonstrate the ideas. Finally, the experimental results are presented to illustrated that while it provides a flexible and portable environment, SCE can also provide a scalable, fast, and efficient cluster environment for users.