Quoting "JANZEN, JAMES HS-SNS" <jim.janzen_at_[hidden]>:
> Currently I have a ethernet network of 4 Unix flavored computers running
> separate multi-threaded
> programs and some of these programs communicate via IPC and reflective
> memory. I need to
> convert my ethernet network to a cluster and make the transition as easy as
> possible - I want
> to minimize the number of software changes I have to make.
>
> I am building a heterogeneous network of Unix flavored PCs (x86), mostly
> Linux based,
> consisting of 18 nodes. Each node will NOT have the exact same hardware
> configuration.
> All of the MPI documents I have read mention the same program is run over
> all machines
> in the cluster. That is not the case in my application. Each node will be
> running different
> programs, most of which are threaded and a few are not.
>
> In my investigation of HPC I found PVM to fit most of my needs except when
> it comes to
> messaging. I like PVM in that I have a single node where I can start all the
> programs on
> each node and monitor their progress.
>
> I like MPI as it looks like a good fit for replacing my IPC mechanism. I
> would also
> like to modify MPI to use the reflective memory cards I have in my cluster
> as this memory
> is very fast and has some features I am already using in my architecture.
>
you have a very peculiar requirement and you should probably either design
or write you code without the use of PVM or MPI.
> I am looking for some general advice pertaining to:
>
> 1. Is LAM a replacement for PVM?
>
LAM is an implementation of the MPI standard. it is not PVM. however, LAM
does implement certain features that are not in the MPI standard.
> 2. What direction should I be heading?
>
either re-design the application to run on PVM/MPI or re-write the application
without using these libraries.
> 3. Is there any software available that can do the things I need? This is a
> commercial application,
> freeware is great but if I have to pay for a solution then I will.
>
you can check out programs like mosix or sun grid engine for farming out jobs
for different nodes but the IPC is still up to you.
good luck!
-------------------------------------------------------
William Emmanuel S. Yu
Department of Information Systems and Computer Science
Ateneo de Manila University
email : wyu at ateneo dot edu
web : http://CNG.ateneo.net/cng/wyu/
phone : +63(2)4266001-4186
GPG : http://CNG.ateneo.net/cng/wyu/wyy.pgp
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