[Bioclusters] Ethernet Performance

[Rene Storm]

Hi Bioclusters,

maybe 
http://www.theether.org/pcp/
is a solution for you.
It's very good for distributing files to a whole cluster.

copy a testfile (1GB) from one frontend to 32 Nodes with gigaethernet (e1000)
real    0m46.179s
datasize 32x1024MB
-------------------------
~ 709 MB/sec

copy a testfile (1GB) from one frontend to 32 Nodes with myrinet2k
real    0m23.202s
datasize 32x1024MB
-------------------------
~1423 MB/sec

With pcp it is important to have a real good gigabit backplane or if you got 
an even better a full-crossbar myrinet switch.

Overview
pcp is a system for replicating files on multiple nodes of a PC cluster. 
Replication is done by building an n-ary tree of TCP sockets and using 
parallelized, pipelined data transfers which use RSA authentication. For 
large file transfers or replication on many nodes, pcp provides highly 
efficient data transfers when compared to existing alternatives (e.g., NFS).
-- 

Regards, 

Rene Storm
emplics AG