Making a cluster

[Sanguimancer]

My place of work is getting rid of 20 or so fairly decent computers and I was wondering, if I am able to convince them to give them to me instead of throwing them away, how hard would it be to turn them into a cluster. I really don't know much about this area, but I find it easiest to learn something if I just dive into it. Also, does anyone know of a good site or book that would help me learn how to do it. I don't know the specs on the computers exactly, but I was hoping it wouldn't take too much time or cash to do this. Thanks for any help you can give and sorry if this is in the wrong place, I couldn't really decide where it should go.

Thanks again,
Sanguimancer

[Statica]

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Cluster-HOWTO.html is a good place to start.

[Floppyman]

I guess my first question would be, what do you plan to do with the cluster? Depending on the task, clustering might not be the best option. I've build a couple of Beowulf clusters and would be happy to help you out. HTH

[Sanguimancer]

Well, thanks for the help, but it seems as though I won't be able to get my hands on the computers. They aren't allowed to just hand them over to me for a variety of reasons, and I doubt they are willing to go through all the work to let me have them. It appears as though they will be dumped into the trash, which is a shame. As for why I was going to build it, not that it really matters now, I just wanted to see if I could and try to learn more about networking and distributed computing in general.

Thanks for the help anyways,
Sanguimancer

[AlwaysUp]

You might get better results in getting these PC's if you offer to have all hard disks zero filled by a qualified third party. Most employers are concerned with data not getting into unauthorized hands. You might also remind them it is not environmentally correct to just toss em in the dumpster!