Beowulf Cluster Computing with Linux (Scientific and Engineering Computation) [Paperback]

William Gropp (Author), Ewing L. Lusk (Author), Janusz S. Kowalik (Author), Jon "maddog" Hall (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262692929 | ISBN-13: 978-0262692922 | Publication Date: November 21, 2003 | Edition: second edition

Use of Beowulf clusters (collections of off-the-shelf commodity computers programmed to act in concert, resulting in supercomputer performance at a fraction of the cost) has spread far and wide in the computational science community. Many application groups are assembling and operating their own "private supercomputers" rather than relying on centralized computing centers. Such clusters are used in climate modeling, computational biology, astrophysics, and materials science, as well as non-traditional areas such as financial modeling and entertainment. Much of this new popularity can be attributed to the growth of the open-source movement.The second edition of Beowulf Cluster Computing with Linux has been completely updated; all three stand-alone sections have important new material. The introductory material in the first part now includes a new chapter giving an overview of the book and background on cluster-specific issues, including why and how to choose a cluster, as well as new chapters on cluster initialization systems (including ROCKS and OSCAR) and on network setup and tuning. The information on parallel programming in the second part now includes chapters on basic parallel programming and available libraries and programs for clusters. The third and largest part of the book, which describes software infrastructure and tools for managing cluster resources, has new material on cluster management and on the Scyld system.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas Sterling is a Professor of Computer Science at Louisiana State University, a Faculty Associate at California Institute of Technology, and a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 660 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; second edition edition (November 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262692929
• ISBN-13: 978-0262692922
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,746,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing. . ., February 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Beowulf Cluster Computing with Linux (Scientific and Engineering Computation) (Paperback)

I seldom review books, but this one is so disappointing that I felt obligated too. The key thing to note about this book is that Thomas Sterling is not the author, but the "Editor" of the book. Sterling assembled a number of short, loosely related articles and tries to pass them off as a comprehensive book on beowulf clusters running on linux. This book offers no real guidance on building a beowulf cluster or working with an existing one. At best, this book only offers a very general overview of cluster computing.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Buyer beware, March 23, 2002

By 

Roger C. Walkup (Maple, WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beowulf Cluster Computing with Linux (Scientific and Engineering Computation) (Paperback)

My supervising professor bought this book for me to use in my senior project and I'm glad it wasn't my purchase. My major complaint is that the code examples in the PVM section are trash. I'm not sure if Al Geist (one of the co-authors of PVM) was rushed or thought that it would be good for students to find and correct errors in the code. Perhaps the best part of the book is Chapter 18 which details the experience at Argonne National Lab of setting up their (massive) cluster, Chiba City. There are many better books out there. Try Parallel Programming by Berry Wilkinson and Michael Allen, Parallel Programming with MPI by Peter Pacheco, or anything by William Gropp.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars useful tips, October 29, 2005

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beowulf Cluster Computing with Linux (Scientific and Engineering Computation) (Paperback)

This second edition covers a large range of cluster topics. Firstly, in terms of why you might need a Beowulf. Then, how to assemble the hardware. And how to install linux on the nodes. The book is valuable not least because it encapsulates decades of knowledge about running clusters, not just of the Beowulf type. The chapters' authors hail from places like Argonne and Oak Ridge National Labs, where there have been research groups using many different types of clusters for years.

Aside from linux, the book describes the special purpose parallel language called MPI. It can be accessed from a C, C++ or Fortran program. Note this choice of languages. Typically the cluster is meant for intensive computational use, with UI issues a low priority. So the book focuses on those languages, and not how to hook Java or C# to MPI.

Of course, with each chapter written by a different author, there is somewhat of a discontinuity between chapters. Think of the book as more akin to a conference proceedings writeup.