<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Re: [Linux-cluster] Diskless Shared-Root GFS/Cluster</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY>  Look at www.scyld.com who do it with diskless lightweight compute nodes where /root is a local ramdisk populated at boottime through the headnode(s). It solves a lot of the issues you where mentioning. Michael Ps: I work for penguincomputing who owns scyld. -----Original Message----- From: isplist@logicore.net [<A HREF="mailto:isplist@logicore.net">mailto:isplist@logicore.net</A>] Sent: Wed Jan 31 11:34:34 2007 To: linux-cluster Subject: Re: [Linux-cluster] Diskless Shared-Root GFS/Cluster I'm thinking for application servers/cluster only, not workstation users. On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 11:10:55 -0800, Tom Mornini wrote: > We boot from flash drives, then pivot root to SAN storage. > > I agree with no drives in servers, but shared root is a > whole different ball game if you mean everyone using a > single filesystem for root. > > -- > -- Tom Mornini, CTO > -- Engine Yard, Ruby on Rails Hosting > -- Reliability, Ease of Use, Scalability > -- (866) 518-YARD (9273) > > > On Jan 31, 2007, at 8:38 AM, isplist@logicore.net wrote: > >> Did you ever give it a try at all? I mean, isn't anything potentially >> devastating if it becomes broken? >> >> In my case, it's silly to have drives running on every server and >> then also >> having centralized storage. It would save power, heat and another >> level of >> failure if I could use a sharedroot system. >> >> Of course, along the same lines, if it's too complex or finicky >> then it might >> not be worth the trouble... for now. >> >> Mike >> >> >> On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 01:26:02 -0800, Tom Mornini wrote: >>> We strongly considered this when implementing our cluster >>> >>> infrastructure, >>> but decided against it when we realized just how devastating *any* >>> problem >>> with that shared root would be... >>> >>> -- >>> -- Tom Mornini, CTO >>> -- Engine Yard, Ruby on Rails Hosting >>> -- Reliability, Ease of Use, Scalability >>> -- (866) 518-YARD (9273) >>> >>> >>> On Jan 30, 2007, at 11:39 PM, Marc Grimme wrote: >>> >>>> Mike, >>>> On Tuesday 30 January 2007 17:50, isplist@logicore.net wrote: >>>>> I saw a few posts from some working on this. Has anyone gotten >>>>> this to work >>>>> properly? My nodes simply do not need their hard drives, it's a >>>>> waste of >>>>> power and hardware since I have plenty of central storage. I would >>>>> like to >>>>> remove drives from nodes and boot the cluster diskless. >>>>> >>>>> I've seen the open shared-root project and such but those seem to >>>>> be about >>>>> building the entire cluster. Since I have the cluster going, I'm >>>>> looking >>>>> for information on how I can convert my nodes to diskless. >>>>> >>>>> Thanks for any information you can provide. >>>>> >>>>> Mike >>>> There are quite a some people (increasing every day) using open- >>>> sharedroot >>>> clusters in productive environments with loads of different >>>> applications. I >>>> also wrote a MiniHowto and some other docs (have a look at >>>> www.open-sharedroot.org) to give assistance. >>>> >>>> As Mike Hagmann already stated it is not a trivial task to build up >>>> such a >>>> cluster (as it's not a trivialtask to build up any type of >>>> productive >>>> clusters, but isn't that a reason why we are doing all that ;-) ) >>>> but the >>>> MiniHowto should help you on the one hand and on the other hand you >>>> can get >>>> more help from open-sharedroot or us at ATIX (www.atix.de). If you >>>> like. >>>> Feel free to ask. >>>> Regards and have fun >>>> Marc. >>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Linux-cluster mailing list >>>>> Linux-cluster@redhat.com >>>>> <A HREF="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-cluster">https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-cluster</A> >>>>> >>>> -- >>>> Gruss / Regards, >>>> >>>> ** Visit us at CeBIT 2007 in Hannover/Germany ** >>>> ** in Hall 5, Booth G48/2 (15.-21. of March) ** >>>> >>>> Marc Grimme >>>> Phone: +49-89 452 3538-14 >>>> <A HREF="http://www.atix.de/">http://www.atix.de/</A> <A HREF="http://www.open-sharedroot.org/">http://www.open-sharedroot.org/</A> >>>> >>>> ** >>>> ATIX - Ges. fuer Informationstechnologie und Consulting mbH >>>> Einsteinstr. 10 - 85716 Unterschleissheim - Germany >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Linux-cluster mailing list >>>> Linux-cluster@redhat.com >>>> <A HREF="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-cluster">https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-cluster</A> >> >> >> -- >> Linux-cluster mailing list >> Linux-cluster@redhat.com >> <A HREF="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-cluster">https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-cluster</A> -- Linux-cluster mailing list Linux-cluster@redhat.com <A HREF="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-cluster">https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-cluster</A> </BODY> </HTML>