From ajl4@EECS.Lehigh.EDU Thu Apr 13 08:53:37 2000
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 15:19:47 -0400
From: Adam Lazur <ajl4@EECS.Lehigh.EDU>
To: Beowulf Mailing List <beowulf@beowulf.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: [abrenner@alinka.com: ALINKA Linux Clustering Letter:]

>From the linux-ha mailing list... figured it would pertain to things
beowulf-ish as well...

.adam

----- Forwarded message from Antoine Brenner <abrenner@alinka.com> -----

> From: Antoine Brenner <abrenner@alinka.com>
> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.6 (32)
> Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 20:32:13 +0200
> To: linux-ha@muc.de
> Subject: ALINKA Linux Clustering Letter:
> 
> 
> 
> Alinka announces the weekly ALINKA Linux Clustering Letter:
> 
> clustering@alinka.com is a free weekly e-mail newsletter on linux clustering
> from ALINKA.
>  
> To subscribe to the list, send e-mail to clustering@alinka.com from the
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> 
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> 
> Alinka is the editor of the ALINKA ORANGES and ALINKA RAISIN administration
> software for Linux clusters. (Web site: http://www.alinka.com )
> 
> clustering@alinka.com provides a summary of the weekly activity in
> mailing-lists
> relative to linux clustering (such as beowulf, linux virtual server or
> linux-ha) and 
> general clustering news.
> 
> Here is the first Alinka Linux Clustering Letter:
> ======================================================================
> ======================================================================
>  
> 
> This is the ALINKA Linux Clustering Letter of Wednesday, April the 12th.
> 2000
> 
> 
> News from the High Performance world, by Dr Laurent Gatineau
> (lgatineau@alinka.com)
> ======================================================================
> New Beowulf cluster in the world
> LosLobos
> 
> The  University of New  Mexico [1] and IBM  [2] have made a cluster of
> 256  IBM Netfinity  servers    (dual processors).   We could  read  in
> Wired [3] that this  cluster  will deliver  a processing speed  of 375
> gigaflops,  or 375 billion operations  per  second.  It will only rank
> 24th on the list of the top 500 fastest supercomputers [4].
> 
> It's  clear that we  need good software and  good hardware before that
> clusters could  be better than  supercomputer. As Dr. Frank Gilfeather
> said, Beowulf clusters  need management  tools like on  supercomputer,
> and they need good I/O, including scalable file systems.
> 
> [1] http://www.unm.edu/
> [2] http://www.ibm.com/
> [3] http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,35113,00.html
> [4] http://www.top500.org/
> 
> =============
> Jet
> 
> The Forecast Systems  Laboratory [1]  has  made a Beowulf cluster  for
> numerical weather  prediction. We   could  read  in the  Linux  Weekly
> News [2] that the FSL cluster (called "Jet") currently consists of 276
> nodes.   Each node is   a   667Mhz Alpha  processors  with 512   Mb of
> memory. Like  for the LosLobos  cluster (and lots of Beowulf cluster),
> the interconnection network used is Myrinet.
> 
> 
> [1] http://www.fsl.noaa.gov/
> [2] http://lwn.net/2000/features/FSLCluster/
> 
> =============
> Lotus
> 
> The  University   of Maine  [1]   has  made a   Beowulf cluster  of 34
> nodes. Each node is  based on two 600Mhz   Pentium III with 512  Mb of
> memory and  two  Fast Ethernet cards.   This cluster is  available for
> testing, computational physics and computational physical chemistry.
> 
> 
> [1] http://weblotus.univ-lemans.fr/w3lotus/index.html
> 
> 
> Conference about Clustering
> =============
> Extreme Linux Workshop/Conference #3
> 
> EL2000 will   be  held  in  conjunction with    the 4th   Annual Linux
> Showcase & Conference on October 12-14,  2000 in Atlanta, GA.  Besides
> the Extreme Linux track there will  be two other refereed tracks: Hack
> Linux and  Use Linux.  There will also  be vendor exhibits, tutorials,
> birds of  feather sessions, and work in  progress sessions.  Attendees
> of the Extreme Linux workshop will be full attendees of the conference
> and able to attend any sessions they want.
> 
> http://www.extremelinux.org/activities/usenix00/
> http://www.linuxshowcase.org/
> 
> 
> 
> Software for Beowulf cluster
> =============
> dsh - distributed shell
> 
> dsh executes one or more commands on a collection  of hosts. The hosts
> may be specified  on the command line  or as nodegroups.  Commands are
> executed  sequentially on each host,  and the output from each command
> is prepended with the  hostname. If a command  is not specified on the
> command line, the user is prompted for commands to execute.
> 
> From: Beowulf mailing list
> Home Page: http://www.ccr.buffalo.edu/dsh.htm
> 
> =============
> PVFS Kernel Interface v0.8.1
> 
> Allows mounting of PVFS file systems on  Linux machines running 2.2.xx
> kernels (tested on 2.2.12, 2.2.13, 2.2.15pre4). This version no longer
> requires patching the kernel.
> 
> From: http://www.beowulf-underground.org/
> Home Page: http://www.parl.clemson.edu/pvfs
> 
> =============
> SCMS 1.2 Early Test Version
> 
> Early version SCMS1.2 beta  is now available  for testing. If  you try
> and it doesn't    work  , please   report the   problem.  New  feature
> including:
> 1. All in Java now. Much better user interface 
> 2. KCAP is now a separate package with many improvement. 
> 3. Realtime monitoring work much better. 
> 
> 
> See [m1] and [m2] for downloading
> 
> From: the beowulf mailing list
> [m1] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0031.html
> [m2] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0033.html
> 
> =============
> TCP patches for Red Hat 6.2
> 
> Josip Loncaric's TCP patches for Red Hat 6.2 (Linux kernel 2.2.14-5.0)
> are available. See:
> Explanation/use: http://www.icase.edu/coral/LinuxTCP2.html
> Patch for RH6.2: http://www.icase.edu/~josip/tcp-patch-for-2.2.14-5.0
> 
> From: the beowulf mailing list
> [m1] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0035.html
> 
> 
> Tips and tricks from the Beowulf mailing list
> =============
> 
> * There was some threads about memory and cluster: how to buy / test /
>   bench it ?
> 
>   A simple conclusion  could be: "buy expensive  memory and you  won't
>   have problems", but it's not always true and Beowulf clusters should
>   use all kind of hardware, so  if you could  trust in your vendor buy
>   its memory and test it. In fact you should always test your hardware
>   before using it.
> 
>   To test it there is some tools:
>   . the famous memtest86 [1]
>   . Adam Lazur [m1] gives  the URL of  memtester [2] and said that "he
>     prefers memtester over memtest86  as it has  a  lot of algo's  for
>     finding bad RAM"
>   Another thing about the memory  tester, Douglas Eadline [m2] reports
>   that "floating   point on x86  hits the  RAM espacially   hards", he
>   hasn't verified this.
> 
>   An other way to test a node is to make a benchmark  of the memory. A
>   good tool for this is stream [3]. By testing the performance of your
>   memory  you test also important  hardware such as  the cache and the
>   bus, and you  could test the scalability  of SMP nodes. This is  the
>   subject of the David Konerding's thread.
> 
> [1] http://reality.sgi.com/cbrady_denver/memtest86/
> [2] http://www.qcc.sk.ca/~charlesc/software/memtester/
> [3] http://www.cs.virginia.edu/stream/
> 
> [m1] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/03/0307.html
> [m2] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/03/0309.html
> [m3] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/03/0286.html
> 
> 
> * Ole Holm Nielsen had written a Beowulf cluster mini-HowTo, you could
>   find it at  this url [1].  Documentations are  important: thanks for
>   this work !
> 
> [1] http://www.fysik.dtu.dk/CAMP/cluster-howto.html 
> 
> [m1] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf-announce/2000/03/0011.html
> 
> 
> * Borries Demeler asks  for a node cloning software...  This is one of
>   the most important tools for a  cluster management software (and its
>   fully provides in our software Alinka Raisin).  Robert G. Brown [m2]
>   proposes the kickstart installation process  from RedHat [1]; dwight
>   [m3] and   Pfenniger Daniel [m4] find  kickstart  very usefull. Alex
>   Lancaster [m5] wrote that one of the limitation of kickstart is that
>   it's not easy to configure software that require human interaction.
> 
> [1] http://www.redhat.com
> 
> [m1] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/03/0274.html
> [m2] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/03/0279.html
> [m3] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/03/0290.html
> [m4] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/03/0295.html
> [m5] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0023.html
> 
> 
> * Alexander Korenkov [m1] seeks for some  tricks to tune his MPI: with
>   his  100 Mbit  fast Ethernet his  net speed  is only about  7.2 Mbit
>   /s.  According to the description of  his algorithm, the best answer
>   should be  the  Jeff Squyres's one  [m2]:  "use  the persistent mode
>   sends and receives". He gives a good description on the cost to send
>   a message: you have to take into account the  cost to go through the
>   system and the cost to  go through the network  (the first one could
>   be very expensive when you send lots of small messages).
> 
> [m1] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0002.html
> [m2] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0003.html
> 
> 
> * Jose Marin [m1] asks  for a network  traffic  monitor.  There's lots
>   of network     meter,  some   does    lots  of   thing,  other   are
>   lightweight... Robert G. Brown [m2] had wrote procstatd [1] and give
>   a pointer [m3] to  mgm  [3] which  is probably not  for professional
>   using. Jose Marin answers himself  and gives a  pointer to an  SGI's
>   tool (Performance Co-Pilot) [2] which monitor all system ressources,
>   and two other pointers [4], [5] for the tools  iptraf and ntop which
>   are  recommended by Jay Sherman, Felix  Rauch [m4]. Two others tools
>   were cited by Lyle Bickley  and Paul Nowoczynski: ethertape [6]  and
>   Ethereal [7] (which is a network protocol analyzer).
> 
> [1] http://www.phy.duke.edu/brahma/
> [2] http://oss.sgi.com/projects/pcp/
> [3] http://www.xiph.org/mgm/
> [4] http://cebu.mozcom.com/riker/iptraf/
> [5] http://www.ntop.org/
> [6] http://etherape.sourceforge.net/download.html
> [7] http://ethereal.zing.org/
> 
> [m1] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0036.html
> [m2] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0038.html
> [m3] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0045.html
> [m4] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0040.html
> 
> 
> * Kragen  Sitaker [m1] wants   to  change the  bios  of all  his nodes
>   without doing it by hand. Erik  Arjan Hendriks [m2] gives a solution
>   with the tool Bios Writer [1].
> 
> [1] http://sourceforge.net/project/?group_id=2965
> 
> [m1] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0058.html
> [m2] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0059.html
> 
> 
> * J.Dube [m1] wants to know if "a  Beowulf on an outside connection is
>   a  huge security hole". A  short answer could be   that a Beowulf is
>   like one computer, so  it's no more no  less a security hole than to
>   put a computer  on an outside  connection...  It depends on how  the
>   Beowulf   is configured. Robert G.  Brown   [m2] wrote  a long  mail
>   explaining how the Beowulf could  be configured to close the maximum
>   of security holes, and dwight [m3] added some comments.
> 
> [m1] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0030.html
> [m2] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0032.html
> [m3] http://www.beowulf.org/listarchives/beowulf/2000/04/0052.html
> 
> 
> News from the High Availability world, by Christophe Massiot
> (cmassiot@alinka.com)
> ======================================================================
> LVS
> ===
> * Jean-Christophe Boggio describes [lvs1] a solution for having load
> balancing with MySQL. The application must separate read queries from
> write queries, read queries are dispatched normally through lvs, and
> write queries are done as many times as there are SQL servers at the
> application level. Sean Ward has developed such a solution which reads
> log files for replication [lvs2]. The source code is currently
> available [lvs3].
> 
> * Phil Z. sends in a report [lvs4] on Realnetworks G2 server. To have
> it work under LVS, the audio/video daemon must be configured to 
> listen/respond to both the VIP and its real IP, and both port 7070 
> and 554 must be redirected.
> 
> * Using LVS for balancing smtp servers should work, provided you do not
> have ident loops with multiple smtp servers. To avoid this, turn on the
> -R option of tcpserver (qmail/tcpserver) [lvs5], or read the HOWTO for
> sendmail [lvs6]. POP will only work if you have an NFS-safe POP server
> [lvs7].
> 
> * RedHat creates a new mailing-list for piranha, a web interface for
> Linux clustering. [lvs8]
> 
> * IPVS patch 0.9.10 is out. Here is the ChangeLog :
>         * Julian added the droprate and secure_tcp defense strategies.
>         * The dropentry defense strategy was revisited.
>         * The fwmark service lookup was added by Horms, Julian and Wensong
>         Use a firewall-marking to denote a virtual service instead of a
>         triplet <protocol,addr,port>.  The marking of packets with a
>         firewall-mark is done by firewalling code. This feature can be
>         used to build a virtual service assoicated to different IP
>         addresses or port numbers, but sharing the same real servers, such
>         as multiple-homed LVS. [lvs9]
> 
> * A document on LVS defense strategies against DOS attack is available.
> [lvs10]
> 
> [lvs1]
> http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-virtual-server&m=95484927402602&w=2
> [lvs2]
> http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-virtual-server&m=95486218014132&w=2
> [lvs3] http://lsdproject.sourceforge.net
> [lvs4]
> http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-virtual-server&m=95486498617326&w=2
> [lvs5]
> http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-virtual-server&m=95496469906008&w=2
> [lvs6]
> http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-virtual-server&m=95404893314823&w=2
> [lvs7] http://www.clubi.ie/%7eross/sendmail-maildir.html
> [lvs8]
> http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-virtual-server&m=95503184623136&w=2
> [lvs9]
> http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-virtual-server&m=95528038608970&w=2
> [lvs10] http://www.LinuxVirtualServer.org/defense.html
> 
> Linux-HA
> ========
> * Legato has released a clustering solution called Legato Cluster
> Enterprise. It supports Solaris, Linux (RedHat, Caldera), Windows NT/2000,
> HP-UX and AIX platforms. [lha1]
> 
> * Mike Wangsmo has released kernels with ext3 patches for testing purposes
> only. [lha2]
> 
> [lha1] http://www.legato.com/News/pr00031index.html
> [lha2] ftp://people.redhat.com/wanger/clustering/ext3
> 
> LinuxFailSafe
> =============
> * Chris Wright summarizes the status of LinuxFailSafe [lfs1]. The port
> to Linux is well under way, and being done largerly by SGI (release date
> in the summer ?). The intent is to open source almost all of FailSafe,
> with a licence near GPL/LGPL.
> 
> * The presentations made by SGI at the Linux FailSafe Symposium at Denver
> on 31st March are now available. [lfs2]
> 
> [lfs1] http://lists.tummy.com/pipermail/linuxfailsafe/2000-April/000011.html
> [lfs2] http://oss.sgi.com/projects/failsafe/
> 
> 
> News on the Filesystems front, by Ludovic Ishiomin
> (lishiomin@alinka.com)
> ======================================================================
> 
> In [1m], someone asks if intermezzo could be used for filesystem 
> replication, in order to achieve high availability. The answer 
> is that intermezzo can handle this job, but it's not ready 
> yet for critical tasks.
> 
> JFS 0.0.5 for Linux, a well known journaled filesystem which 
> comes from IBM AIX, has been announced. More information can be
> found at [1]. But it is not yet ready for a public release.
> 
> In the linux-lvm mailing list, there had been a discussion about the
> ability to convert an existing filesystem into a logical volume. 
> The conclusion is that it should be possible, but some code is 
> needed in the ext2resize utility.
> 
> 
> [1m] http://www.inter-mezzo.org/list-archives/intermezzo-discuss/msg00007.html
> [1] http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/jfs/index.html
> ======================================================================
> 
> 
> This letter was brought to you by ALINKA (http://www.alinka.com), the
> editor of the ALINKA ORANGES 
> and ALINKA RAISIN administration software for Linux clusters. 
> 
> -- 
> abrenner@alinka.com
> http://www.alinka.com; AlinkA : Cluster Solutions
> Tel: (+33) 1 49 35 29 29
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Linux HA Web Site:
>   http://linux-ha.org/
> Linux HA HOWTO:
>   http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/ALPHA/linux-ha/High-Availability-HOWTO.html
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
[     Adam Lazur | Computer Engr Ugrad | Lehigh Univ. |   _ __      ]
[        icq 3354423 | http://www.lehigh.edu/~ajl4    |__( | /_     ]
  "The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and
   intelligent. The machine easily masters the grim and the dumb."
                                            - Marshall McLuhan, 1969
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