[gentoo-science] examples of large Gentoo clusters for science

[Bryan Green <bgreen@nas.nasa.gov>]

Hello all,

I sent the following message to the gentoo-cluster mailing list, and then
realized it was probably equally, if not more, applicable to the
gentoo-science list.

I am looking for something of a survey of examples of Gentoo-driven clusters
out there.  If such a survey has been done, perhaps someone point me to it.
But I would like to hear from others on the list about their clusters.

I am in the process of advocating for using Gentoo on a new cluster that we
will be building.  The cluster will be a "hyperwall", meaning that each node
will have graphics, forming a grid of displays for multi-parameter,
multi-dimensional scientific visualization.  There will also be several disk
servers which will run Suse in order to get Lustre support (Lustre support
on the client side will be OS-neutral when the current beta is officially
released).  In addition to graphics, the nodes will also be used for compute
jobs (scientific), and may serve as a testbed for a production scientific
computing environment.

In the process of making my case, I've been asked what other examples there
are of large Gentoo clusters.  This cluster will be 128 nodes (dual socket,
dual or quad core).  Of particular interest are production and/or scientific
environments - not so much database clusters, though all examples are of
interest.  Use of MPI is particularly relevant.  Graphics clusters are also
of interest of course.

I'd be grateful for any feedback I get from others on the list about the
clusters they maintain or use, and perhaps some comments about the efficacy
of Gentoo in an environment where stability is very important, and how
system administration compares to administration of a Suse or Redhat cluster.

Thanks,
-bryan

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