|
General information |
On 5th to 6th December 1998 between 11:30pm and 6:15am, the WDR
ComputerNight will take place, live on TV. Linux-Magazin, in association
with Linux User Groups in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands
intend to build the world´s greatest Linux cluster (codename CLOWN
= CLuster Of Working Nodes). It will be registered with the Guinness Book
of Records. The aim is to construct a Cluster of 512 computers, assuming
enough people join our effort. The "place of action" is the computer-science
building of University/GH
Paderborn at 11 Fürstenallee, next to Heinz
Nixdorf MuseumsForum in Paderborn, Germany. Computing Time on the cluster
will be provided to several projects. Organisation and planning takes place
on the mailing
list which is open for all interested parties:
echo "subscribe cluster" | mail majordomo@klammeraffe.org
All participants (max. 400) will get an entrance ticket for the whole event
(1 registered computer = 1 ticket). |
| Further Cluster Information |
Additional information concerning the Cluster Project can be found
here.
Furthermore the Cluster-FAQ (Frequently Asked
Questions) is being updated regularly. Please read this first, because
your most pressing questions are probably already answered in the FAQ ! |
| University of Paderborn |
The University of Paderborn provides several rooms for the Cluster
Project, including one for the cluster itself, two for seminars and organization
meetings , one for sleeping, and finally one in the cellar for storage
of hardware and its packaging. Furthermore several employees of the Working
Group for Operating Systems and Distributed Systems participate in
the production of the software and first tests on the Linux clusters, that
are present in Paderborn. Informatics
Computer Operations (IRB) supports the project with 20 people (student
assistants and employees). On each shift from Saturday 8am to Sunday 6pm,
there will be at least two of them present. |
| Business sponsors (Hardware) |
-
The first official sponsor is Peacock
with 50 PCs.
-
Siemens provides a 2-digit number of
computers.
-
Samsung and
Quant-X
have promised 50 Alphas (667 MHz), incl. technical experts for software
and hardware to take care of their computers. In addition a cluster with
5 Alphas has been provided for a TV shooting at WDR Computer-Club .
-
Maxdata will provide the following
:
a) 1 x 4 processor Pentium II Xeon 400 MHz, approx. 2 GB memory RAM,
240 GB hard-drive capacity, internal 80 MB/s LVD with RAID 5 cache controller,
fiber channel 64 Bit external disk array with 100 MB/s, HD capacity ca.
140 GB. All controllers are from ICP Vortex.
b) 2 x 4 processor Pentium II Xeon 400 Mhz, ca. 512 MB RAM, RAID 5
cache controller by ICP Vortex 12 GB internal HD capacity.
The hard disks are being sponsored by Seagate,
fibre channel controllers by ICP Vortex.
-
Jolo Data from Hildesheim provides
a copy station (incl. floppies) which will be used to copy the Cluster
Linux-distribution to 500 floppy disks before the event.
-
Planet Insomnia offered a network
fallback-solution for 1000 computers. This later has since been replaced
by the HP equipment.
-
The Faculty of Computer Science at University
of Rostock, with kind support by debis
AG, gives 17 computers to the Cluster Project (1 P5/120MHz-server with
24 MB RAM and 16 Dual-P5/150 PCs with 32 MB RAM). This composite of computers
has been working for more than two years, and so it is tried and tested.
-
Hewlett Packard
is sponsoring the complete network/switching technology. The following
equipment probably will be employed:
6x HP ProCurve Switch 8000
2x HP ProCurve Switch 4000
3x HP ProCurve Switch 1600
1x HP ProCurve Switch 2400
The switches will be inter-connected with 1000Base-SX links, and HP´s
technology of Switch-Meshing
will be used. Additionally HP provides an network-management facility,
with HP OpenView. The company KXL supports HP with the organization.
-
SEH GmbH delivers 100 PCs on pallets!
These are Pentium II computers with 64 MB RAM, 6.3GB IDE hard disk and
3c905 network cards. Now the sonic barrier of 512 computers has been broken
! On the following pictures you can see how the computers will be brought
in. The Cluster Project more or less will be the burn-in test for them.
They then will go to the final inspection and approval.
  
-
LANetixx from Paderborn contributes
four computers and some 9" monochrome VGA-monitors to the Cluster (PII300-128MB,
PII266-96MB, PII266-64MB, and PPro 180-128MB).
-
Packet Engines donates G-NIC
GigaBit Ethernet-cards, which will be used for the central NFS- and
backbone-servers.
|
| Further sponsors (raffle, money, private) |
- -mat- brandy provides his infrastructure
Klammeraffe.org (implementation and administration of the mailing list).
A big THANK YOU to him and all the other numerous helpers. Their names will be shown
in an organizational list soon.
-
Heise-Verlag (more specifically iX-Redaktion)
donates 10 iX+ subscriptions, which will be raffled among the cluster event´s
participants.
-
JF Software / Jörg Fehlmann contributed
a large sum to the Cluster Project for free disposition. The money will
probably be used to buy 100MBit network cards for emergencies.
-
Liebscher & Partner Werbeagentur
provides 5 cuddly penguins to be raffled among the participants. And a
one-meter tall penguin will be lent to the project, to be auctioned and
sold to the highest bidder. Possible proceeds remaining after the whole
event, will be donated to the Free Software
Foundation.
-
Vereinigte Verlagsanstalten GmbH donated
a large amount of money to the Cluster Project for free use.
-
LinuxLand International donates 5
Caldera OpenLinux 1.3 incl. LinuxLand Bonus- CD. These will be raffled
among the event´s participants.
-
Carl Hanser Verlag donates 6 Linux books
for the raffle.
-
FMS Computer & Kommunikationssysteme
contributes 5 CNet 100TX network cards (PCI, DEC-chipset) for the raffle.
-
syskoplan GmbH ("we make it happen")
supports the event with a generous donation for the network and infrastructure.
-
Lehmanns Fachbuchhandlung gives 10 Debian
2.0 Linux distributions for the raffle.
-
IMAGO VIVA (realization: Carsten
Wartmann) has developed a small Cluster-trailer, also to be shown on
28.Nov.1998 at 2.30 pm at WDR Computer-Club. A fast-forward preview with
low resolution you may see here.
-
delix Computer GmbH donates 5 DLD 5.41
Pro Linux distributions with a total value of 1000 DEM (~ 505 EUR) for
the raffle.
-
Arthur Andersen supports the
Cluster Project with a generous donation of money.
- The Ärzte-Seite, in connection with
the non-commercial Internet-User association which will be founded on 5/6th Dec.98 in Paderborn,
donates a trip with the Cluster-Mobile for the raffle. The winner may take four additional people
with her/him in this luxury limousine, equipped with a champagne bar!
With kind authorization by
Ärzte-Seite
|
|
Chronology of events |
-
Beginning of October 1998: first Contacts with WDR
-
20.Oct.1998: The Proclaimation of THE Cluster Project
-
25.Oct.1998: Mailing list available at Klammeraffe.org
-
26.Oct.1998: Power supply seems to be settled, maybe cooling, too
-
27.Oct.1998: First cool cluster logo by -mat- brandy
-
27.Oct.1998: An archive of the mailing list can be found here.
-
28.Oct.1998: The application
form is available from now on. Please enter your lot of computers!
;-)
-
28.Oct.1998: Today the project went over all relevant news tickers (Slashdot,
Heise
Newsticker,
LIVE, ...)
-
30.Oct.1998: Setting up of 5-6 special teams to manage the project.
-
02.Nov.1998: If you want to support the Custer Project, you may do so with
a payment to the following donations account:
Linux-Magazin Verlag
Raiffeisenbank Feldkirchen
bank sorting code: 701 693 64
account number: 100142565
reference: CLUSTER
-
03.Nov.1998: A somewhat more thorough text (in German) concerning the Cluster
Project can be found here.
-
04.Nov.1998: First promises of donations begin to emerge.
-
05.Nov.1998: A meeting is planned for the 14/15th November 1998 in Gütersloh/Paderborn.
Among other things we want to visit the site for the event, and run first
tests of the distribution.
-
06.Nov.1998: Today the first concrete promise of a donor arrived. The manufacturer
Peacock
AG will contibute 50 computers to the Linux cluster, and will build
a small series for this purpose. Many thanks! We are now looking for a
"godparent", to take care of the installation and operation. The ideal
candidate would be an institute at the University of Paderborn. The institute
might use the computers for numerical computations even before the event
(as a small thank you to Paderborn).
-
07.Nov.1998: Additional information for the meeting in Gütersloh/Paderborn
may be found
here.
-
07.Nov.1998: First designs for a Cluster-trailer are in the making.
-
08.Nov.1998: Siemens will provide a
2-digit number of computers. The exact number is unknown up to now.
-
10.Nov.1998: Heise-Verlag (specifically
the : iX-Redaktion) will donate
10 iX+ subscriptions, which will be raffled among the cluster event´s
participants. (A small incentive for the undecided). Many thanks.
-
10.Nov.1998: Today seven more mailing lists will be implemeted for the
more specific aspects of the planning. The lists are as follows:
cluster-software@klammeraffe.org
cluster-hardware@klammeraffe.org
cluster-logistik@klammeraffe.org
cluster-distribution@klammeraffe.org
cluster-publicity@klammeraffe.org
cluster-presse@klammeraffe.org
cluster-show@klammeraffe.org
-
10.Nov.1998: The software CACTUS
as a scientific application possibly will run on the cluster . It comes
from the field of the General Theory of Relativity.
-
10.Nov.1998: A first version of the Cluster-FAQ
is now available. Comments and suggestions for additional questions are
very welcome.
-
13.Nov.1998: Samsung and
Quant-X
have promised 50 Alphas (667 MHz), incl. technical experts for software
and hardware to take care of their computers. In addition a cluster with
5 Alphas has been provided for a TV shooting at WDR Computer-Club.
-
14/15.Nov.1998: This weekend a first and very productive cluster meeting
took place in Gütersloh. A lot of open points and uncertainties were
cleared. And we visited the "Place of Action" in Paderborn. The results
of this meeting are currently being prepared for publication...
-
15.Nov.1998: The Cluster got a name:
CLOWN = CLuster Of Working Nodes
-
16.Nov.1998: MaxData will provide
4-processor Pentium PC's with a RAID system and min. 300 GB hard disk capacity.
-
16.Nov.1998: Liebscher & Partner
Werbeagentur provides 5 cuddly penguins to be raffled among the participants.
And a one-meter tall penguin will be lent to the project.
-
17.Nov.1998: Vereinigte Verlagsanstalten GmbH
donated a large amount of money to the Cluster Project for free use.
-
17.Nov.1998: LinuxLand International
gives 5 Caldera OpenLinux 1.3 incl. LinuxLand Bonus- CD. These will be
raffled among the event´s participants.
-
18.Nov.1998: The Carl Hanser Verlag
donates 6 Linux books for the raffle.
-
19.Nov.1998: The Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum
provides 400 entry tickets for the Linux-cluster event. Every participant
gets one (1 registered computer = 1 entry ticket, there will be no exceptions.)
-
19.Nov.1998: FMS Computer & Kommunikationssysteme
contributes 5 CNet 100TX network cards (PCI, DEC-chipset) for the raffle.
-
23.Nov.1998: Today these sponsors could be added:
Syskoplan, Lehmanns
Fachbuchhandlung, the Faculty
of Computer Science at University of Rostock, debis
AG, and Jolo Data Hildesheim.
-
23.Nov.1998: Hewlett Packard as one of
the main sponsors provides the complete network/switching technology. So
one of the central open questions of the Cluster Project is cleared. In
addition HP contributes network-management equipment with HP OpenView.
-
23.Nov.1998: The English translation (as a first version ;-) drifted in
this weekend.
-
24.Nov.1998: SEH GmbH delivers
100 PCs on pallets. Now the sonic barrier of 512 computers has been broken
!
-
26.Nov.1998: delix Computer GmbH donates
5 DLD 5.41 Pro Linux distributions with a total value of 1000 DEM (~ 505
EUR) for the raffle.
- 30.Nov.1998: The Ärzte-Seite, in connection with
the non-commercial Internet-User association which will be founded on 5/6th Dec.98 in Paderborn,
donates a trip with the Cluster-Mobile (equipped with a champagne bar!) for the raffle.
-
Further information will follow ...
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