Boinc Linux cluster How-To??

BOINC doesn't support clustering as it defeats the purpose of using spare CPU cycles of standard machines. The entire BOINC software, as well as each science app would have to be rewritten to support clusters. If you're interested in doing it yourself, BOINC and SETI are both open source.
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BOINC doesn't support clustering as it defeats the purpose of using spare CPU cycles of standard machines. The entire BOINC software, as well as each science app would have to be rewritten to support clusters. If you're interested in doing it yourself, BOINC and SETI are both open source.

I have found many users on this forum doing this so i dont think its an imposibility.

I have allways seen the purpose of BOINC is to help with research and in the end make this world a better place, not a way "of using spare CPU cycles of standard machines"

BOINC doesn't support clustering as it defeats the purpose of using spare CPU cycles of standard machines. The entire BOINC software, as well as each science app would have to be rewritten to support clusters. If you're interested in doing it yourself, BOINC and SETI are both open source.

I have found many users on this forum doing this so i dont think its an imposibility.

I have allways seen the purpose of BOINC is to help with research and in the end make this world a better place, not a way "of using spare CPU cycles of standard machines"

No user that I've ever seen on these boards is using BOINC in a cluster because no one has been able to rewrite the software to do it, but they do use a network of standalone Linux machines, if that's what you mean by 'cluster'. Many help request have asked how to do a Linux cluster or Windows cluster, but BOINC simply isn't programmed to work that way. It is currently designed to run on standalone machines networked together.

The purpose of BOINC is to provide an infrastructure for under-funded science projects to utilize all the spare CPU cycles in the world (which have the BOINC client installed) to be put to use. The theory is that all the CPU's spare cycles would amount to more power than a supercomputer.

All this is with the intent of making the world a better place, but even David Anderson (Lead BOINC developer and creator) will tell you that the entire concept is to use the spare CPU cycles that would otherwise go to waste sitting idle.

Hi

Is it possible to boot a cluster of linux machines from a server via PXE?
Can boinc handle that?

This is something I am slowly investigating, and so far the Linux Terminal Server Project seems to be the way I will try to set it up.
I have all the hardware needed its just a case of instalation and configuring it all, and thats the steep learning curve Iv`e hit....
If the motherboards you have can boot using PXE that simplifies things a bit,
There is no limit to the number of boards that can be connected to the server
Otherwise you have to get a lan card that can have an eprom fitted to it and this will need to have the boot code written onto it, you have to look out for lan cards that have a dule inline socket on them,
And check to see if it can be enabled to work, this shoud be written on the box, this is where the eprom will fit, but BIG problem is finding an eprom writer, and learning how to use it, they cost a LOT of cash, BUT, you can also put the boot code on a floppy disk [we have all got them, ok it`s not a 100% diskless system but very close] that boot code starts up the lan card and fetches the minnamalist operating system from the network server [witch also needs to be set up and configured].
Everything has to run in ram so the less there is to load the better on old machines with limited ram capability {some of mine max out at a mere 512mb} and using swap over lan is either very slow or unreliable.
The motherboards cpu`s dont have to be the same, it just saves some setup time if they are, mine are anything i can get hold of for free [well almost]
Nowhere have I found a compleat and uptodate guide on how to do this and that is because there are so many possible variations of hardware and configuration that none can cover every aspect of the task, It is a matter of becoming your own system administrator and learning what makes Linux tick.
One day I know I get it done.
Hope this helps if just a little bit.
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I was wondering if it could be possible to have the main operating system with the BOINC client installed on 1 server, and then have like 10 motherboards with no harddrive, cd-rom, floppy.
Only motherboards with CPU, RAM and a network card.

Then the 10 motherboards could boot the operating system with BOINC from the one server via network. Thereby having 10 BOINC machines running.

Would this be possible?

You would run into sharing violations. Each workstation needs to have its own local copy of BOINC, complete with their own workunits in order to run properly.

You would run into sharing violations. Each workstation needs to have its own local copy of BOINC, complete with their own workunits in order to run properly.

It should posible if each BOINC instance from each node is on his seperate NFS or Samba directory on the fileserver.

You would run into sharing violations. Each workstation needs to have its own local copy of BOINC, complete with their own workunits in order to run properly.

It should posible if each BOINC instance from each node is on his seperate NFS or Samba directory on the fileserver.

Yes, that would work.

Heh, This is not going to be easy i can hear :)

But surely someone must have achieved this?

You would run into sharing violations. Each workstation needs to have its own local copy of BOINC, complete with their own workunits in order to run properly.

It should posible if each BOINC instance from each node is on his seperate NFS or Samba directory on the fileserver.