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On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:55:59 +0100, Rob Beard wrote: > Grant Sewell wrote: >> Hi all, >> >> Whilst watching a foundation degree student's presentation on their >> project - building a Linux beowulf cluster - the idea struck me... what >> a wonderful way to generate enough processing power for an LTSP server. >> >> I know there are some people on the list who have a bit of LTSP >> experience, so I was just wondering if (in their experience) a beowulf >> cluster would actually work well as an LTSP server? If it were to >> work, it could even benefit from being configured as a COWs (Cluster of >> Workstation) - so the LTSP server cluster would also be able to pull >> processing power from the idle workstations connecting to it! >> >> It's late and I'm getting excited about this now... dammit, I'll never >> sleep! >> >> Cheers all. >> Grant. >> > > Do you mean lots of lower spec clients all working as a beowulf cluster > whilst displaying the program output on the screen? > > (Rather than having a dedicated LTSP server, the clients share the > donkey work?). > > It's something I've looked into although I'm not sure how well normal > desktop applications work in a cluster. IIRC a Mosix cluster would do > the job but it's now unsupported as machines have got so quick (which I > think is a poor excuse really as even though there are multiple core > machines out there, they don't half use a whole load of power). > > Rob Hi Rob, As I understand it, an LTSP setup would normally consist of: + One "server" machine that is relatively powerful. + Multiple "fat/thin client" machines that are underspecced in today's world. What I was thinking was how a cluster of lower-specced machines could be used in place of a single higher-specced "server". Then I remembered about COWs idea - so essentially the clients could actually act as low-end computational nodes on behalf of the server. Might be a daft idea, might not. Grant. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html