The first time I spoke the word " Beowulf Clustering" to my lecturer when he asks me what am I going to do for my small project, frankly I don't even know what "clustering" is... but I sure do know i've heard those words before... and I know it's gonna be fun.

Yeah, I do have fun (not to mention the horrible details I have to go through before getting to know what clustering really is and how it works..). There are many (damn complicated and yet tricky) way that you can setup your linux clustering, including Sycld Rock Clustering, but I'd love to share to you one of the easiest method to setup Linux Clustering (true, it takes me only about 5 minutes to bring up the cluster), that is by using the ParallelKnoppix.

Ok, you might want to get through the complete tutorial here or here in Malay Language. But I just want to briefly explained what have I done in those 5 minutes.

I decided to run cluster on 3 Linux Box. One will acts as the master and the rest is the nodes (1 master and 2 nodes).

And I have to make sure that those 2 nodes and the master are equipped with bootable LAN card && supported by the ParallelKnoppix distro itself. (Yeah, I forgot to mention that ParallelKnoppix is actually a linux distro)

In a nutshell, these are my hardware requirements:

1. 3 computer (1 for master and 2 for nodes)
2. A bootable ParallelKnoppix live CD. Download here
3. In each computer is equipped with bootable LAN interface.
4. One working CD-ROM for the master to boot parallelKnoppix
5. A router
   
6. Cat5 direct cable to connect those computers in a small LAN

Ok, so now I have to make sure that no other nonsense rules is applied in my router (MAC filter, DHCP disable stuffs) by pressing the "Reset Button". And next is to connect those three machines to the computer. And please make sure that DHCP is enabled since we don't want to have any problem with the IP.

Next! Turn ON the master, boot into parallelknoppix. Please, I'm not going into details here since the complete tutorial is here (english version) and here(malay version). But once I manage to setup how many nodes are they that will be in the cluster, so I booted the 2 nodes via PXE-LAN boot (configure in BIOS settings || Boot Sequence)..and viola..as long as the nodes are equipped with supported LAN card (by the parallelknoppix), than you should not have problem booting into the ParallelKnoppix hosted by the master PC.

Next, viola....you may test the cluster by using example provided along with the ParallelKnoppix distribution, or simply download any scripts on the internet. Good luck.

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