openMosix was a free

cluster may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study the magnetosphere * Asteroid cluster, a small ...

management system that provided

single-system image In distributed computing, a single system image (SSI) cluster is a cluster of machines that appears to be one single system. The concept is often considered synonymous with that of a distributed operating system, but a single image may be presente ...

(SSI) capabilities, e.g. automatic work distribution among nodes. It allowed program processes (not threads) to migrate to machines in the node's network that would be able to run that process faster (

process migration In computing, process migration is a specialized form of process management whereby processes are moved from one computing environment to another. This originated in distributed computing, but is now used more widely. On multicore machines (mul ...

). It was particularly useful for running parallel applications having low to moderate

input/output In computing, input/output (I/O, i/o, or informally io or IO) is the communication between an information processing system, such as a computer, and the outside world, such as another computer system, peripherals, or a human operator. Inputs a ...

(I/O). It was released as a

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

patch, but was also available on specialized

Live CD A live CD (also live DVD, live disc, or live operating system) is a complete booting, bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar storage device into a computer's memory, rather than lo ...

s. openMosix development has been halted by its developers, but the LinuxPMI project is continuing development of the former openMosix code.

History

openMosix was originally

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to h ...

ed from MOSIX by Moshe Bar on February 10, 2002 when MOSIX became

proprietary software Proprietary software is computer software, software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing t ...

. openMosix was considered stable on

2.4.x for the

x86 architecture x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel, based on the 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088. T ...

, but porting to Linux 2.6 kernel remained in the alpha stage. Support for the 64-bit

AMD64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit extension of the x86 instruction set. It was announced in 1999 and first available in the AMD Opteron family in 2003. It introduces two new operating modes: 64-bit mode an ...

architecture only started with the 2.6 version. On July 15, 2007, Bar announced that the openMOSIX project would reach its end of life on March 1, 2008, due to the decreasing need for single system image (SSI) clustering as low-cost

multi-core processor A multi-core processor (MCP) is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit (IC) with two or more separate central processing units (CPUs), called ''cores'' to emphasize their multiplicity (for example, ''dual-core'' or ''quad-core''). Ea ...

s increase in availability. OpenMosix used to be distributed as a

Gentoo Linux Gentoo Linux (pronounced ) is a Linux distribution built using the Portage package management system. Unlike a binary software distribution, the source code is compiled locally according to the user's preferences and is often optimized for ...

kernel choice, but it was removed from Gentoo Linux's ''Portage tree'' in February 2007. As of March 1, 2008, openMosix read-only source code is still hosted at SourceForge. The OpenPMIx project is continuing development of the former openMosix code.

ClusterKnoppix

''ClusterKnoppix'' is a specialized

Linux distribution A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro—if distributed on its own—is oft ...

based on the

Knoppix Knoppix, stylized KNOPPIX ( ), is an operating system based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD or DVD (Live CD) or a USB flash drive ( Live USB). It was first released in 2000 by German Linux consultant Klaus Knopper, and was one ...

distribution, but which uses the openMosix kernel. Traditionally, clustered computing could only be achieved by setting up individual rsh keys, creating NFS shares, editing host files, setting static IPs, and applying kernel patches manually. ClusterKnoppix effectively renders most of this work unnecessary. The distribution contains an autoconfiguration system where new ClusterKnoppix-running computers attached to the network automatically join the cluster. ClusterKnoppix is a modified Knoppix distro using the OpenMosix kernel.

References

External links

*
openMosixWiki

Original page at wayback archive

ClusterKnoppix at sourceforge.net

Clusterknoppix at distrowatch

Load-Balancing cluster HowTo using ClusterKnoppix
* http://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/linux/clusterKnoppix/ * http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/clusterKnoppix/
OpenPMIx

openMosix cluster sites

Cluster at National Taras Shevchenko University of KyivHydra
{{DEFAULTSORT:Openmosix Cluster computing Internet Protocol based network software Parallel computing

History

ClusterKnoppix

See also

Live CDs

References

External links

openMosix cluster sites