And so, our story begins...

[/non-homo]

Following on from here.


Our head has upped his game. No longer is he simply a pretty cool guy. Now he trolls [company] and doesn't afraid of anything.

That's right. ANYTHING.


We've been having issues because of one particular company [Which I'm not naming...] So our HT, instead of doing what I'm used to seeing from other heads [Which would be precisely [censored] all] he's been sending e-mails off to the company, ...

I've just ordered 4 new computers, due to serious failures in a few classes, and had an idea.

The new computers are licenced for Windows 7 Home Premium [SP1], but will actually be running Windows XP.


My idea was... rejiggle the licences around [Put the licence for the old machine on the new one] and then there'd be some decent Win7 lincences going spare. [which I may or may not have planned to aquire...]


Turns out, you can't do that. ...

Not a rant... More "omg my boss is awesome!" I just felt like sharing.

The following is an ACTUAL e-mail chain sent between the head and myself. [It's also backwards. Most recent at the top.]

http://i41.tinypic.com/jzkhh.jpg

Not just any dragons... GANGSTER DRAGONS!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----

...

Well that sucks.

I've had to convert the head-node into a CC3 desktop because one has died [power supply failure] and I've also had to rip the power button from one of the nodes.

That brings it down to 3 computers I can use. While it's stil possible, I think, the fact they're RM F-series and weak beyond belief[/opinion] would render any added power from the clustering moot.

Sorry to anyone who was actually interested.

The project is dead. ...

Hey look. A blog post that isn't Project Borg related.

It's pony related. [Among other things] [[censored] ponies... how do they work?]

I'm sitting around herping, derping and generally searching things on the interweb when our Head of Math asks me about my desktop wallpaper.

So far, it's been described as bambi, "that white guy with blue hair and the dog in the collar"[?]... no-one had actually asked what it was.

So I told him. ...

It seems the project will have to be on hold for a bit while I sort out documentation.

Everything I have references software that doesn't work. [and things like chkconfig... which I can't use.]

I'm going to find alternatives and start again from scratch.

This time using Ubuntu 11.10 [Server]. If it works... Which it didn't an hour ago.

Hopefully, it will have all the necessary software installed.

...it's a BLARGH post.

All I have to say is "SCREW YOU, DEBIAN 6.0.3!!"

I spent this morning setting up/configuring the cluster controller [or the "head node" as my documentation calls it].

I wired it up, without any network connection as I'm not at that stage yet.

Stuck in the Debian disk, boots fine.
Using it as a live disk, works fine.
Install OS... Nope.

For some reason it doesn't want ...

Update time.

And a small update at that.


Yesterday was spent upgrading the nodes and the controller, I've doubled the RAM so it now stands at 1GB RAM per node, and 4GB RAM on the controller.

Everything else is standard.


As the test, I'm thinking of possibly installing Quake and seeing how it runs. Lag, FPS [frames per second... not first person shooter.], graphics quality, etc.

First it'd be installed on ...

I've checked all hardware, chosen the OS [Debian] and the MPI [OPEN-MPI], I've got a bit of documentation so I know what I'm doing [slightly].

But there's one thing I forgot to check...

CHECK THERE'S ENOUGH ROOM!!

Which there isn't... Blargh!

I'm still doing it though. A couple of powerstrips [and a reposition of the laptop trolley] should be sufficient.

As usual, any suggestions let me know.

Cluster server is go.

At least premission has been given, and the powers that be think the LAN MMO idea is a good one. [Still trying to find one... here's hoping BETT can help.]


For those who are curious, for this experiment I will be using:


10 RM F-series as nodes [Which I can't find full specs for...]

Some sort of ex-admin Dell as the controller. We've got a couple sitting about.

Cisco Catalyst 2950 [24 ...