IBM Systems Technical University

Now it is over and I'm already missing it. Some bits good some average and a lot of gems.
I only hope I will be able to attend next year again.

S-pain today

Beowulf Beta 0.5

Hello everybody

I just finished some iconic steps of the beowulf and even closed its first "personality".
HW wise is now finished and even the MPICH2 personality was added to all nodes.

As you can see the PSUs are re-aarranged and the local disks are completely out of view (at their back).
Also the network switch is 100% attached and functional.
Even the new power plugs are running ok.

Still some power on issues aflict my nodes :-(  I guess time is an enemy of computers when not treated correctly :-P


Project phases (as of today):

Infrastructure building  100%
Frame building            100%
HW installation           100%
HW "Stabilization"      100%
First boot                   100%
SW installation           100%
SW selection --> MPICH2 (For the fiirst personality) 100%
OS installation (Ubuntu server 32bit 12.04 LTS) -->   100%
OS customization -->                                                 100%
Network configuration -->                                          100%
New switch (24 ports) installation. -->                        100%
SAN & NAS configuration (NFS) -->                         50%  (still using only local disks)
Test the System -->                                                        0%

Beowulf v0.3 conceptual and physical layouts

Ok, now that I have received all the network gear I needed I can continue with this adventure :-)
Here is the conceptual design.
I know that Hadoop runs tipically on local storage but I will try also MPICH2 and may be Rocks cluster, both of them using SAN storage.

• I had problems with the HW of one node (Overclocking is no longer supported to provide max stability :-) so I had to fix it reducing its speed and finished adding one master node with plenty of power (P-IV 3Ghz) and heat :-(.
• I have installed the net switch plus one manageable power plug array so I can start any node remotely. I have seen more than 400Watts when they are running :-((((( so it is mandatory to be able to switch them on and off on demand.

And this is the physical layout (not very detailed but gives one idea of the real stuff).

Will continue.....

Beowulf Alpha 0.2

Had to "reduce the map" of the cluster ;-) so I cut the height of the stack. Initially each node had 13cms in height but it looks like11cm is enough. Also now it can be placed under my shelves, which is a good thing for the space in my room.

I replaced the initial mix of 2x20GB & 2x40GB HDDs with 2x120GB & 2x160GB HDDs so I can run two different versions of my HPC system... hellooouuu Rocks cluster :-P

Project phases:

1. Infrastructure building  100%
1. Frame building         100%
2. HW installation        100%
3. HW "Stabilization"   100%
4. First boot                100%
2. SW installation            0%
1. SW selection --> Hadoop (For the time being) 100%
2. OS installation (Ubuntu server 32bit 12.04 LTS) --> 75% 
3. OS customization 
3. Network configuration
1. New switch needed (24 ports). Installation.
2. SAN & NAS configuration (¿NFS or iSCSI?)
4. Test the System

Will continue.....

"Has four men's heft of grasp in the gripe of his hand"

Poor man's Beowulf Alpha 0.1

Project phases:

1. Infrastructure building  100%
1. Frame building         100%
2. HW installation        100%
3. HW "Stabilization"   100%
4. First boot                100%
2. SW installation            0%
1. SW selection (Currently between Rocks Cluster and Ubuntu + Hadoop) 0%
3. Test System

Will continue.....

Stand-up Firewall Mark-II

Or version 2.0 as you prefer.
I was not very happy with the outcome of my first project so I decided to improve it slightly.
I got rid of the nails and started drilling small holes in the wood in order to use now screws so the motherboard could fit better to the wood.
I also got rid of the plastic handcuffs :-P and now I am using some clever solutions to make the ethernet cards more stable. A dumb adapter cover with foam glued to the inner side holds them together and it is attached to the mobo with a plastic strip (the mobo had a hole just in the middle :-) )
Additionally I am using a small "fonera" as wifi access point attached to the firewall using a molex for power and its standard RJ45 for data (attached to my last free 3COM adapter).
So now those are the final specs (until my next generation firewall appears of course :-D ):

• M0n0wall firewall OS v1.3x. 
• Boots & runs from Compact Flash to avoid power hungry disks.
• 5 fast ethernet ports (100Mbps), 1x integrated + 4x 3COM cards.
• "Almost static" WAN IP thanks to DynDNS
• Variable speed fan with manual control to avoid noise.
• Wifi 802.11g using a fonera with extended range antenna.
• Fonera using Gargoyle  firmware v 1.4.7. stable branch.
• Motherboard donated by a DELL (cannot remember model but ... who cares?) Optiplex GX150.
• Intel Celeron 900Mhz Socket 370 with the lowest TDP. Just 27 Watts.
• With QoS and full use of Bittorrent it only goes up to 75% of capacity so it is good enough (for the time being since it has just a 45 Mbps/2Mbps internet connection)
• 60 W PSU donated from an old SUN machine.
• Shelve from Leroy-Merlin.
• Lots of fun :-D

Gamla eller Nya

After the stand-up firewall, my first project, I had to come up with something to make good use for the rest of the spare parts I had scattered all around.

So I decided to go for a NAS project, and here is the outcome:

• OpenMediaVault Debian based NAS OS
• OS boots from Class 10 SD card in a USB 2.0 port
• Industrial mobo with mini-itx form factor
• Intel T7300 Core 2 Duo CPU
• 3 Gigabit ethernet ports
• 4 SATA ports with 4 SATA disks in RAID 5 (8GB raw capacity so 6GB real capacity)
• Two compact disk cases to hold the 4 disks together and reduce vibrations.
• Mini PSU capable of 450 400Watts but using just 35W in iddle mode.
• 3 different fans with their own speed control to allow reduced noise
• 1GB DDR2 SODIMM RAM in two modules.
• Shelve from IKEA
• Shelve from Leroy -Merlin
• 4 rubber legs to avoid vibration
• Some screws and loctite eveywhere along with black paint to cover some scratches :-P
• Massive fun :-D

Of course it has some more bits but I cannnot recall them all just now.

Presenting my shiny new stand-up firewall.

Being freaky has things like this.

Due to some unused shelves & some spare parts I had at home I managed to create this "thing". Actually it is my new firewall.
Since the last one was unable to cope with my ISP's bandwith I decided I needed a new one. So I did it.

Good air flow, no noise at all and 0 capex :-D.

Thanks to Leroy Merlin and M0n0wall :-P

PS: It is still in prototype phase so expect some cosmetic changes during the next few days.

Winter morning in Almería

As seen from "Sweet Water Hills"

January day (Winter in South Spain)

This is how it looks a winter day in South Spain (almost 18ºC). Several "cañas" & "tapas" had to be tasted :-P