INTRODUCTION
Cluster is a widely used term meaning independent
computers combined into a unified system through
software and networking
Clusters are typically used for High Availability
(HA) for greater reliability or High Performance
Computing (HPC) to provide greater
computational power than a single computer can
provide.
Clusters are composed of many commodity
computers, linked together by a high-speed
dedicated network
Cluster categorization
• High-availability (HA) clusters
• Load balancing clusters
• High-performance (HPC) clusters
• Grid Cluster
Cluster Architecture
A cluster is a type of parallel or distributed processing
system that consists of a collection of interconnected
stand-alone computers working together as a single,
integrated computing resource
Cluster Computing Features
• Network technologies
• Network Types
• Communication Protocols
• Operating system
• Single System Image (SSI)
• Quorum
Production of High Throughput Cluster
Computing Applications
• Divide and Conquer
• Data Management
• Shared Storage Architectures
HOMER CLUSTER
Used for e-mail and information resources
Architecture
A cluster is made up of six components
• Compute servers
• File servers
• Password servers
• Application servers
• Mail servers
• Reference systems
Hardware Topology :
Dell high performance computing
combines multiple Symmetric Multi-Processor (SMP) computer
systems together with high-speed interconnects to achieve the raw-
computing power of supercomputers
HPCC Architecture
HPCC Building Block
BENEFITS
• scale to very large systems
• replacing a "bad machine" within a cluster is trivial yields much higher Availability
LIMITATIONS
• Typically latency is very high and bandwidth relatively low.
• Currently there is very little software support for treating a cluster as a single system.
• Problems exist in the interactions between mixed application workloads on a single time-
shared computer
APPLICATIONS
• execution platform for a range of application classes
• to execute many Internet applications
• execution environments for applications such as weather modeling, automobile
crash simulations, life sciences, computational fluid dynamics etc.
Comparing with other distributed computing
Characteristic Cluster Grid P2P
Resource Management (i.e. Centralized Distributed Distributed
memory, objects, storage,
network access, etc)
Resource Ownership Singular Singular or multiple, varies from Singular, multiple, or distributed,
(Often locked to a single node to platform to platform depending on circumstance
prevent data corruption) and architecture
Method of Resource Allocation / Centralized, allocated according Decentralized N/A, there is no single permanent
Scheduling configuration host for centralized data or
resource management.
Everything is transient.
External Representation Single Image Single or multiple image(s) Unknown, it is circumstantial
Inter-Operability Guaranteed within a cluster Enforced within a framework Multiple competing standards
Suggested Equipments Mostly high-end, high capability High-end or commodity systems Any type, including wireless device
systems and embedded systems.
Scaling 2- 16 way (Although, Two to thousands units connection Theoretically, infinite (In actuality, it
theoretically 128+ is depends on network backbone
possible) transmission speed, number of
clients, and type of
transmission protocol…..)
Discovery Mechanism Defined membership (Static or Centralized index, as well as, Always decentralized discovery
Dynamic) multiple decentralized mechanism.
mechanisms.
CONCLUSION
Cluster computing has become a major part of many
research programs because the price to performance
ratio of commodity clusters is very good. Also, because
the nodes in a cluster are clones, there is no single point
of failure, which enhances the reliability to the cluster.
THANK Q