Overview
Linux Clustering: Building and Maintaining Linux Clusters provides Linux users with information about building their own Linux cluster from the ground up. It gives best practices, helpful hints, and guidelines about building one server or hundreds of servers at a level that administrators at any experience level can understand.
From installation of the air conditioning and power in the data center, to alternative file systems to the final production run, this book provides you with everything that you need to know. Linux Clustering: Building and Maintaining Linux Clusters walks you through the initial design and selection of the best possible types of clusters, as well as covering monitoring tools and providing for disaster recovery. Not only does this book provide information on parallel and Beowulf type clusters, Charles Bookman goes into depth on high availability clusters, load balancing, and provides advice for writing your own distributing applications as well. Incorporating best practices and cutting-edge approaches, Bookman provides step-by-step and tried-and-true methods of bringing up a Linux cluster to production level.
Synopsis
Linux Clustering: Building and Maintaining Linux Clusters provides Linux users with information about building their own Linux cluster from the ground up. It gives best practices, helpful hints, and guidelines about building one server or hundreds of servers at a level that administrators at any experience level can understand.
From installation of the air conditioning and power in the data center, to alternative file systems to the final production run, this book provides you with everything that you need to know. Linux Clustering: Building and Maintaining Linux Clusters walks you through the initial design and selection of the best possible types of clusters, as well as covering monitoring tools and providing for disaster recovery. Not only does this book provide information on parallel and Beowulf type clusters, Charles Bookman goes into depth on high availability clusters, load balancing, and provides advice for writing your own distributing applications as well. Incorporating best practices and cutting-edge approaches, Bookman provides step-by-step and tried-and-true methods of bringing up a Linux cluster to production level.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewWant to build your own supercomputer? Or just protect your enterprise apps with maximum scalability and availability? Get out your trusty-dusty Linux distro and this book, and you’re in business.
Linux Clustering covers every phase of installing, configuring, and, above all, maintaining any type of Linux cluster. Author Charles Bookman, who runs high-performance Linux clusters for a living, doesn’t sugarcoat the complexities involved. For example, if you want to build a high-performance parallel cluster (maybe you have a hurricane to simulate), forget about Linux’s “set it and forget it” reputation: These beasts require constant tuning and tweaking.
You’ll begin by preparing your Linux cluster: designing topologies, preparing your environment, planning for security and backup, choosing distributions, selecting a filesystem (you’ll probably avoid the default ext2 filesystem); and automating installation with handy tools like SystemImager or Red Hat’s Kickstart.
Next, Bookman walks you step-by-step through constructing high-availability and fault-tolerant clusters; clusters for load balancing, distributed computing clusters (think SETI@home), and “Beowulf” parallel clusters. Along the way, he discusses clustering tools few Linux have encountered, from “heartbeat” applications that track every cluster member to tools for distributing jobs across multiple machines.
You’ll find chapters on managing your cluster and on troubleshooting. In each case, Bookman offers plenty of practical tips from firsthand experience. For example, he doesn’t merely tell you to have a plan for reinstalling damaged operating systems in an emergency; he provides a model script that can help you make sure all your key applications are available immediately after reinstall.
The only thing that’s wrong with this book is that you’ll leave wanting more. Bill Camarda
Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.