Jump to content

Diskless Folding Farm


Nemo

Recommended Posts

Well I'm getting closer to getting this figured out. I finally got a mobo that will do a PXE boot from LAN ($19 refurb from Newegg) and got my software DHCP server to recognize it and try to send it a boot image. Problem is, I don't have a boot image yet but that's the next obstacle to overcome!

 

:foldon::foldon:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Off and on for a couple of months, but I only get to work on it during the weekends for a couple of hours each night after the kids go to bed. I wasted a lot of time with a couple of Soyo boards that were supposed to boot from LAN but don't and I got no repsonse from their tech support. I'll be really pysched it I get this to work and then I can write it up and share it with everyone.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm not sure if you've tried it or not, but Knoppix will let you do a network boot off of it.

I went through the config to do it, but didn't test it (I didn't wanna stop processing my folding - bad points day).

 

nicest part about this is that not only can you can have diskless clients, but the 'master' doesn't have to have a hdd either!

:foldon:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm not sure if you've tried it or not, but Knoppix will let you do a network boot off of it.

I went through the config to do it, but didn't test it (I didn't wanna stop processing my folding - bad points day).

 

nicest part about this is that not only can you can have diskless clients, but the 'master' doesn't have to have a hdd either!

:foldon:

The whole approach I am trying to take is to be able to do this using my Windows server. With Knoppix, you still need a CD drive on your clients to boot from. The concept I'm trying to figure out is how to have a series of clients that are nothing more than a mobo with some RAM that boot over the LAN and receive the OS kernel from my Windows server. This way you can build the clients as cheaply as possible and I don't have to have a Linux server.

 

There are several good guides on the net already that detail how to boot clients using a Linux server.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm not sure if you've tried it or not, but Knoppix will let you do a network boot off of it. 

I went through the config to do it, but didn't test it (I didn't wanna stop processing my folding - bad points day).

 

nicest part about this is that not only can you can have diskless clients, but the 'master' doesn't have to have a hdd either!

:foldon:

The whole approach I am trying to take is to be able to do this using my Windows server. With Knoppix, you still need a CD drive on your clients to boot from. The concept I'm trying to figure out is how to have a series of clients that are nothing more than a mobo with some RAM that boot over the LAN and receive the OS kernel from my Windows server. This way you can build the clients as cheaply as possible and I don't have to have a Linux server.

 

There are several good guides on the net already that detail how to boot clients using a Linux server.

Just a MOBO and Ram? What about a PSU? Is there a way to run mulpitly Comps from a PSU? or what other aooroches are there?

 

:foldon:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...