Beowulf on school network

[cuog]

A cuople of friends of mine and me of course have decided it would be cool to harness the power of the hundred or so computer in our school, to get this done we are hoping to setup a beowulf configuration to harness the power of all of the computers,

basically what we need are some tutorials on how to do this if anyone has stummbled across one or if anyone knows how to setup a beowulf on a preexisting network

[EzyStvy]

Beowulf.org is a collection of resources for the expanding universe of users and designers of Beowulf class cluster computers. These enterprise systems are built on commodity hardware deploying Linux OS and open source software.

http://www.beowulf.org/

[cuog]

Is Linux required for these setups since I can't load a new OS on all of these computers(especially not hundred something)

[enhanced08]

as far as i know Linux is a must for a cluster. i started to build my own awhile back but the systems i have are not good enough to do it :( if your luck Floppyman will see this thread and help you out. he has built one at his school out of older machines.

[rightcoast]

Yeah, you need to use a Unix based system to have a beowulf. I never set one up, but I'm sure about that. I do remember seeing on engadget a few days ago that Microsoft plans on releasing a version of Server 2003 that is capable of it too though.
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000010034456/

[enhanced08]

yeah, my itech teacher said something about that. he said 2003 server could do it now but i have never read anything about it. maybe it was enterprise edition or something. either way that would get expensive real quick!

[rightcoast]

Heh, a lot of the world's *countries* would have to think twice before springing for a hundred Server 2K3 liscenses. :)

[Floppyman]

Sorry this is coming way too late, just happened to see this post through a search. I have now successfully setup a pair of Beowulf clusters at my college running the Rocks Linux Operating System (www.rocksclusters.org). They are no speed demons, but do get the job done. If you need help, feel free to private message me. HTH