Transient "Beowulf" cluster of Erlang nodes.

[Peter-Henry Mander]

Thanks Mickael, I had a hunch that I wasn't doing anything radically new 
here, and with two leads in a matter of hours I feel confident that I've 
  got moral support at the very least. (-:

I hope to create a small ISO image with a basic Linux install and RB9-1 
preinstalled, configured to run as a service at bootup. The development 
environment isn't a requirement, but if it comes for free, why not?

Your help is gleefully accepted, and I'd be happy to take on the project.

Following up on your second message, I don't know how easy Knoppix is to 
customise yet. I'm working on it, and I'll eventually post a diary about 
how easy/hard it is. Since the purpose of this project is to demonstrate 
the scalability of our Erlang product testing tool I'm quite eager to 
see it succeed.

Pete.


Mickael Remond wrote:
> Peter-Henry Mander <erlang@REDACTED> writes:
> 
> 
>>Hi y'all,
>>
>>I have a small project in mind, and would like to know whether someone
>>has done it before, and if so, how?
>>
>>I intend to harness the redundant processing power of our office PCs
>>as a pool of Erlang nodes while everyone is out (overnight or over the
>>weekend, hence "transient Beowulf cluster") and carry out some stress
>>tests on our product using the office PC cluster to share the
>>processing load. The scheme is to create a Knoppix
>>(http://www.knoppix.net) style boot CD-ROM containing R9B that is
>>inserted into the appropriated PCs, which are rebooted or turned on
>>and left to boot up without any further intervention.
> 
> 
> I had such a project regarding this topics that was called Erwolf.
> This was basically the same idea + everything needed as a complete
> Erlang development environnement. The idea was:
> 1. Being able to build an Erlang set of node quickly and automatically
> on a rather large number of machines.
> 2. To have everything Erlang on the go: you can boot the CD everywhere
> and have a complete and working development environment.
> I can find my CD image and put it back online.
> 
> It was difficult to maintain has it was based on Linux from
> Scratch. Updating the CD with new software was a pain.
> 
> Now there is Knoppix and I think this is the way to go.
> If you want to lead the initiative I will help you.
> 
> If you feel confortable with it, I propose to open a dedicated area on
> Erlang project, for this Erlang/Linux based distribution.
> 






Mickael Remond wrote:
 > Peter-Henry Mander <erlang@REDACTED> writes:
 >
 >
 >>oooOOOoooh (o:*
 >>
 >>Thanks for the lead Thomas, this does sound interesting. May I know a
 >>bit more please? I'd be happy to be a tester.
 >>
 >>Now I need to get Knoppix to work, modify it, and launch Erlang on
 >>bootup as a service, perhaps. Unless there's a way of running a "pure"
 >>Erlang node on a PC?
 >
 >
 > Basically that is the idea. The hardest question in this approach is how
 > to make it maintenable. If we want the tools too live, it should be
 > nearly automatic to build new version of the distribution, including
 > new tools, tools upgrade and so on.
 >
 > Otherwise, you will soon get pissed of if you have to manually rebuild
 > the modified ISO (by dumping the content on your hard drives,
 > apt-geting the software you want to indlude and regenerate the ISO as
 > described on Knoppix website).
 >
 > Do you know if the Knoppix script for creation of the ISO are easy to
 > use ?
 >