Cluster Computing

Ok, so this is a new thing for me.  I've never built a cluster... but I really, really want to.  That may sound incredibly dork of me, but I've been doing a lot of thinking about it, and I think that's going to be my next project.

I'm really into Linux, especially Ubuntu variants.  As a matter of fact, I have completely composed this blog on my Xubuntu laptop.  It's nothing special... a Dell Inspiron 1440 with a Core 2 Duo T6500 2.10 GHz with 4 GB of RAM.  But, I love it... I take it with me just about everywhere I go... It goes to work with me most everyday and to most of my meetings with me.  If I don't bring this with me, I have an Archos 101 tablet that I bring.  I also have a few Win laptops that - one for work, and one for school, but those mostly sit at their respective desks.

Now, it may sound like I'm getting off topic, but I'm not... just hang with me.  Linux is a fantastic platform for someone to play around with... and an even better platform to understand... and, IMHO, should be at the cornerstone of every organization's infrastructure.  Stand alone systems are great, and can often serve the needs of a small or medium-sized group.  While that may work in many situations, there is a breaking point where the performance of the system is affected by the number of users.

Here is where a computer cluster can shine.  Offloading the required processing to multiple machines connected through high-speed networking gateways can create system of great proportion - just ask any large-scale enterprise.  All major companies have data centers that utilize clusters to perform their required computing tasks.  Moreover, a cluster can provide high-availability and fail over capabilities, even across great distances, to keep businesses in compliance with their continuation plans.

So, back to my current desires... Beowulf clusters utilize consumer-grade hardware configured in the same manner as enterprises-level clusters, but with much more cost-effective hardware.  I've been thinking that I'm going to buy a small <19U rack for my basement and then work on selecting and purchasing 1U rack-mounted servers to build a small cluster (I'm thinking 6 systems total - 1 master and 5 slaves... or even better, 1 master, 4 slaves and 1 hot spare).

I often set out on completing crazy little projects like this.  That's why my house has a BSD-based NAS system (which will be converted over to a Ubuntu-based system this year... stay tuned), an Asterisk-based PBX, and countless other things that I've built, dissembled, and turned into other things.  This, however, would be the most expensive project that I've ever taken on.  So... what should I do with it?  Build it and resell it?  Host a project?  Lease server time?  I haven't figured it out yet, but I'd gladly welcome a suggestion.

Who knows?  Once I find the right use for it, I might just take the first steps and put a few more miles on my credit cards, and get us that much closer to our next vacation...