[ale] Linux Cluster Server Room

[Bjorn Dittmer-Roche]

On Mon, 19 Apr 2004, Jonathan Glass wrote:

> Just for the cluster, I have a 6kVa BestPower UPS.  It'll run all 16
> nodes for about 15 minutes.

The BestPower units are increadible. Lots o' juice, great filtering, great
monitoring via front panel and serial, very robust. Make sure you get a
unit with proper power factor conversion (We were accidentally sent one
without and what a headache!).

On Mon, 19 Apr 2004, Jeffrey B. Layton wrote:

> I'll give you my 2 cents about clusters and UPS's if you wish.
>
> A good cluster configuration will treat each compute node as
> an appliance. You don't really care about it too much and it
> doesn't hold any data of any importance. What you care about
> is the master node and/or where the data is stored These
> machines can have their own UPS or a single UPS to cover
> the machines (they may be more than one). Then take the cost
> savings (if you can) and put them into more nodes, or a better
> interconnect (if needed), or a large file system, or a better
> backup system, or .... well, you get the picture.

If you go this route, and I know people who have, be sure to get good
power conditioning for the nodes. Power outages often come hand-in-hand
with other problems (such as spikes) that a UPS or power conditioner can
help prevent.

(Jeff mentioned this -- I just wanted to emphasize!)

	bjorn