Topic: openMosix

[bovnet]

Can SME servers on the same network share horsepower. Would this work ?

[guest22]

It could if you patch the kernel with the OpenMosix code. Here you will find detailed info on that:

http://howto.ipng.be/openMosix-HOWTO/

But please realize that this kind of 'clustering' is way out of the scope of the standard SME Server objectives, but then again, it can be done.

We will look forward to your how-to

RequestedDeletion

[bovnet]

Dont hold your breath. I have been messing all afternoon with the same doc you suggest. I install the kernel but the initrd file is missing although the symlink is shown initrd-openmosix.img -> initrd-2.4.20-openmosix2.img STUCK!

With my limited understanding this clustering is more suited to calulations and specif written apps but some server apps do scale accross.

It just seems that if added its set and forget. Servers find each other and share cpu's

[guest22]

Ok, breathing again here

You are right about 'specific' processes. For example Apache amd MySQL will not benefit from OpenMosix as it is, although there are efforts made by a bunch of galls in Pakistan or India (no politics!), and they do a real good job on that.

Anyway, time will tell.

RequestedDeletion

[bovnet]

Work done here also Apache to benefit http://mcaserta.com/maask/index.html

[guest22]

Nice, didn't hear of that project before.

[bovnet]

I have had another go at this and managed to install a 2.4.26 openmosix patched kernel this only seemed to break the quota system. Although not heavily used it seemed stable.

The next problem is that i cant install the user tools as they required a newer glibc. Upgrading glibc broke all kinds of services and rpm, so that i cant install the tools.

It seems SME 6.1.01.01.01 is very old now and the differences in ages cause major problems. Openmosix is about to move onto kernel 2.6

We should have a bleeding edge sme server

In the meantime might try 2.4.22

[bovnet]

Well i tried 2.4.18-om4

I now have a working SME 6 cluster of 2 machines

 12:07am  up  5:08,  4 users,  load average: 1.23, 1.41, 1.25
133 processes: 130 sleeping, 3 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states: 193.4% user,  3.5% system, 193.6% nice,  0.0% idle
Mem:  245960K av, 213948K used,  32012K free,      0K shrd,  13864K buff
Swap: 265032K av,  10948K used, 254084K free                 82408K cached

mtop showing > 100% cpu as processes have moved to 2nd server.

[Garfield]

This is very nice !
Just a few weeks ago I too started reading about the different possibilities for clustering under linux.
Mosix seams like a nice solution for sharing workload, I am very interested in hearing how this develops, and hope to find some time to experiment with this too.

[bovnet]

Here is a very brief howto written from memory and untested *UNTESTED*.

Notes. It will break quota's and maybe other things. My main server has been up overnight serving web, email, ftp without any problem detected.

This is an early version of openmosix without the shared memory patches - most service wont migrate and therefore benefit.

Proceed at your own risk.

1. Download openmosix-kernel-2.4.18-openmosix4.i386.rpm & openmosix-tools-0.2.4-1.i386.rpm
2. install with rpm
3. cd /boot

rm System.map

ln -s System.map-2.4.18-openmosix4 System.map

4. edit /etc/lilo.conf

prompt

timeout=50

default=SMEServer-up

boot=/dev/hda

map=/boot/map

install=/boot/boot.b

message=/boot/sme_server.pcx

lba32

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.7smp

        label=SMEServer-smp

        initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-18.7smp.img

        read-only

        root=/dev/hda3

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.7

        label=SMEServer-up

        initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-18.7.img

        read-only

        root=/dev/hda3

 

 

AFTER:

prompt

timeout=50

default=SMEServer-mosix  <-------Kernel to boot from automatically

boot=/dev/hda

map=/boot/map

install=/boot/boot.b

message=/boot/sme_server.pcx

lba32

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.7smp

        label=SMEServer-smp

        initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-18.7smp.img

        read-only

        root=/dev/hda3

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.7

        label=SMEServer-up

        initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-18.7.img

        read-only

        root=/dev/hda3

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-openmosix4  <-------------------------Added Entry

        label=SMEServer-mosix

        initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-openmosix4.img

        read-only

        root=/dev/hda3

5. Expand template for lilo.conf

/sbin/e-smith/expand-template /etc/lilo.conf                
 

6. Install lilo                    

lilo

You should not receive any error messages; if you do, check your lilo.conf file.                

 

STEP 7: Send the signal upgrade command to your SME server so that the new modules are recognized by the server & reboot.

 

/sbin/e-smith/signal-event post-upgrade        

/sbin/e-smith/signal-event reboot            

8. Pray.

9. setup the mosix.map

10. start /etc/rc.d/init.d/openmosix start