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gptwjptw
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 04 Jul 2006
Posts: 2
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 Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:41 pm Post subject:
SGI Altix 330 cluster
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Dear all,
Kindly help on the following:
This is with reference to
http://www.sgi.com/products/servers/altix/330/configs.html
"Node size (single operating system image): 1 - 16 CPU"
- What does Single Operating System Image (SOSI) mean?
Suppose there are 3 x 1U of Altix 330, with SOSI, does that mean only 1
OS will be installed?
If there are 2 x Itanium2 CPU with 2 GB memory on each 1U of Altix 330,
thus total of 6 x Itanium2 CPU with 6GB of memory, with SOSI, will the
OS report 6 CPU (via and 6GB of memory via command "top" or
/proc/cpuinfo ?
Many thanks in advance. |
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John-Paul Stewart
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 20 Feb 2005
Posts: 497
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| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:15 pm Post subject:
Re: SGI Altix 330 cluster
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gptwjptw wrote:
| Quote: | Dear all,
Kindly help on the following:
This is with reference to
http://www.sgi.com/products/servers/altix/330/configs.html
"Node size (single operating system image): 1 - 16 CPU"
- What does Single Operating System Image (SOSI) mean?
Suppose there are 3 x 1U of Altix 330, with SOSI, does that mean only 1
OS will be installed?
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Yes, but see below.
| Quote: | If there are 2 x Itanium2 CPU with 2 GB memory on each 1U of Altix 330,
thus total of 6 x Itanium2 CPU with 6GB of memory, with SOSI, will the
OS report 6 CPU (via and 6GB of memory via command "top" or
/proc/cpuinfo ?
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Yes, if that's how the Altix is configured.
The 1U units can be cabled together using SGI's NUMAlink technology to
make one larger Altix 330 system, up to 16 processors. This is *not* a
cluster, but a single system. This is the norm for large Altix
installations.
Each 1U unit is also capable of running standalone without NUMAlink.
Then each unit would need it's own copy of the OS, and each would see
only 2 CPUs and 2GB of RAM. These could then be clustered using
whatever cluster technology that you like.
There are some instances where a single large system is preferable to a
cluster, especially where large memory access is concerned. A cluster
of systems with 2GB a piece passing data over the network has a lot more
overhead than a single system where all 6GB of RAM is directly
accessible by all of the processors. An SGI Altix is suitable in those
instances where a cluster isn't.
Note, too, that all of this applies to the larger Altix systems (and the
earlier MIPS-based Origins). You can have up to 512 CPUs in a single
system (not a cluster) with the larger models.
For a really large installation, you can start with 512 CPU systems and
cluster *those* together. See, for example, NASA's "Columbia"
supercomputer, a cluster of 20 nodes where each node has 512 CPUs.
http://www.sgi.com/company_info/newsroom/press_releases/2004/october/columbia.html |
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gptwjptw
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 04 Jul 2006
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 8:21 pm Post subject:
Re: SGI Altix 330 cluster
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| Quote: |
The 1U units can be cabled together using SGI's NUMAlink technology to
make one larger Altix 330 system, up to 16 processors. This is *not* a
cluster, but a single system. This is the norm for large Altix
installations.
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When multiple SGI Altix machines are configured as single system, ie.
with a single operating system image, how can we tell them apart
without physcially going to the machine ? |
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Tony 'Nicoya' Mantler
*nix forums Guru Wannabe
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 139
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| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 9:37 pm Post subject:
Re: SGI Altix 330 cluster
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In article <1152044474.613801.198680@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com>,
"gptwjptw" <gptwjptw@yahoo.com> wrote:
: >
: > The 1U units can be cabled together using SGI's NUMAlink technology to
: > make one larger Altix 330 system, up to 16 processors. This is *not* a
: > cluster, but a single system. This is the norm for large Altix
: > installations.
: >
:
: When multiple SGI Altix machines are configured as single system, ie.
: with a single operating system image, how can we tell them apart
: without physcially going to the machine ?
What "apart" do you need to tell? It's all one system.
Think of it like a really big SMP system, except that the old-style system bus
is replaced by an interconnect fabric.
All the resources in the system (disks, memory, IO cards etc) are shared
transparently through the hardware. If you have 3 fiberchannel cards plugged
into various slots throughout the nodes, you'll just see 3 fiberchannel cards
when you log in.
The only time you should ever need to care what's installed where is when you
get down to really low-level optimizing. At that point you'll start caring what
resources are spread around to what nodes, and where your code is running etc,
but for the most part you shouldn't need to care, everything will Just Work[tm].
Cheers - Tony 'Nicoya' Mantler :)
--
Tony 'Nicoya' Mantler - Master of Code-fu
-- nicoya@ubb.ca -- http://www.ubb.ca/ -- |
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Ian Mapleson
*nix forums addict
Joined: 29 Apr 2005
Posts: 54
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| Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 10:51 pm Post subject:
Re: SGI Altix 330 cluster
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gptwjptw wrote:
| Quote: |
The 1U units can be cabled together using SGI's NUMAlink technology to
make one larger Altix 330 system, up to 16 processors. This is *not* a
cluster, but a single system. This is the norm for large Altix
installations.
When multiple SGI Altix machines are configured as single system, ie.
with a single operating system image, how can we tell them apart
without physcially going to the machine ?
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You don't really need to know, but if you did, how about sticky labels
on
the door cabinets? :-)
Ian. |
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martyn.foster@gmail.com
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 17 Jul 2006
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:11 am Post subject:
Re: SGI Altix 330 cluster
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gptwjptw wrote:
| Quote: |
The 1U units can be cabled together using SGI's NUMAlink technology to
make one larger Altix 330 system, up to 16 processors. This is *not* a
cluster, but a single system. This is the norm for large Altix
installations.
When multiple SGI Altix machines are configured as single system, ie.
with a single operating system image, how can we tell them apart
without physcially going to the machine ?
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Can you give an example of what/why you want to identify? Certainly if
there is a failing component in the system then these things *are*
logged with a tag that identifies which physical module had the issue. |
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