ENVS 1200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Beowulf Cluster
13 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
ENVS 1200 Lecture 14 Notes – Beowulf Clusters
Introduction
• You make two ATM transactions in quick succession and they are processed on different
nodes of a cluster.
• Without synchronization, your deposit could be wiped off the record!
• Different nodes of a cluster may be located in the same physical cabinet or may be
located miles apart, provided there is a way to interconnect the high speed messaging
link, and, if applicable, the shared-disk links.
• In fact, creating a cluster with widely separated nodes can also serve to protect the
overall system and its data from catastrophe at a single location, particularly if the
shared disks are also available at both locations.
• Clusters can even be configured to operate over the Internet.
• Despite the additional complexity and planning effort, clustering has grown in
importance in the last few years
• It provides a scalable and reliable way to attain large amounts of computer power at
relatively low cost.
• Beowulf clusters are simple, highly configurable clusters designed to provide high
performance at low cost.
• Beowulf clusters consist of multiple computers connected together by a dedicated,
private Ethernet, which serves as the link between the computers in the cluster.
• The cluster can be configured either as a shared-nothing or shared-disk model.
• Each node contains a CPU, memory, an Ethernet connection, and, sometimes, hard
disks, floppy disks, and other peripherals.
• Beowulf clusters are generally configured with one of two types of computer
components.
• COTS, or commodity-off-the-shelf components are simply inexpensive computers
connected together to form a Beowulf cluster.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
