[Bioclusters] Hetergenous clusters?

[Tim Cutts]

On 14 Oct 2004, at 11:05 pm, <Daniel.G.Roberts@aventis.com> wrote:

>
>
> Anyone out there have a single linux cluster which as both 32bit and 
> 64 bit compute nodes within the same cluster.
>  Is this very common?
>

Not common.  But we do it.  We have a mixed architecture cluster which 
currently consists of Tru64 Alphas and 32-bit Linux boxes.  We're about 
to add some 64-bit Linux boxes as well.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend it unless you have a good reason, 
since obviously you're multiplying the number of software stacks you 
are maintaining.  In our case, the  Alphas are legacy, and the 64-bit 
Linux boxes are aimed at replacing them, and providing machines for 
large memory tasks (one of our new Itamium2 boxes has 192 GB of RAM)

Tim

-- 
Dr Tim Cutts
Informatics Systems Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
GPG: 1024D/E3134233 FE3D 6C73 BBD6 726A A3F5  860B 3CDD 3F56 E313 4233