OSCAR

Back in March, “Extreme Linux” (available online at http://www.linux-mag.com/2005-03/extreme_01.html) showed you how to build a (very) low cost cluster. The four-node, diskful cluster — which cost only about $1,600 — consisted of modest 2.3 GHz Intel Celeron processors interconnected via 100 Mbps (fast) Ethernet. While that system isn’t particularly powerful, it is suitable for testing clustering technologies and scalability of parallel software applications. Such a small cluster is a dandy place to do software development before moving an application to a bigger system.

Since March, the column has been focused on free Linux- based cluster distributions that can run on such a cluster. These cluster distributions tend to include combinations of individual packages (many of which have been previously described in this column!) and typically run on systems consisting of a few processors to a few thousand processors. Some of the software highlighted recently were really full cluster distributions with their own custom kernels, while others were package collections that install on well-known Linux distributions.

April’s column (http://www.linux-mag.com/2005-04/extreme_01.html) discussed the Clustermatic Linux distribution, a collection of packages (including BProc) designed for fast and efficient clusters with minimal operating system software. May presented the Rocks Cluster Distribution distributed by the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC). Rocks comes in many flavors for a variety of computational needs.

This month, let’s dive into OSCAR, the Open Source Cluster Application Resources software bundle designed solely for high-performance cluster computing.