[Bioclusters] resources on administering clusters

[chris dagdigian]

Jeff Layton wrote:

><snip>
>
>First, I take issue with the idea that because I'm interested in
>pure speed, that I don't take the time or care to develop or find or
>buy the tools I need to admin the clusters effectively and efficiently.
>I probably do the same things you do, but instead of coming up with
>tools that ease my admin burden, I come up with tools that ease
>my admin BUT don't compromise speed. I don't now if people
>document what they do in making these tools, but if you start searching
>the web, you'll find them (at least I did).
>
><snip>
>
Hey Jeff--

Good to see a critical mass building up on the list. I didn't mean to 
insult the speed demons out there- it just that I've seen lots of groups 
(particulary biologists in academic settings) do really hair-raising 
stuff like wire capacitors into their motherboards to they can be 
overclocked safely. I have no problem doing that stuff at home but I'd 
be worried if that hardware had to live in a datacenter and be cared for 
by the IT group. This reflects my bias of course as someone who came up 
on the industry/biotech side of the fence.

I will say though that I still believe that people put far too much 
emphasis on hardware price/performance without looking at releated stuff 
like physical footprint, electrical consumption, heat output & 
management overhead. Those dual-AMD systems are really fast but if you 
don't realize that they come with 550-watt power supplies your 
cooling/HVAC people people are going to be pretty upset.

-Chris