kernel support for Single System Image (SSI) clustering

[Valery Khamenya]

Hi gurus,

QUESTIONS:

ÂÂQ1. is it possible to make Linux kernels more friendly to SSI-clustering ?

ÂÂQ2. is there any support for SSI-clustering planned for next kernels?


DETAILS:

During 2005-2006ÂI've been using OpenSSI cluster based on patched
Linux kernel and was very, very happy. With almost no efforts I was
able to compute thingsÂovernightÂusing OpenSSI that otherwise
would take days.

Five years ago I've been expecting thatÂone dayÂLinux dev community
will adopt the most interestingÂparts from OpenSSI and/or Kerrighed.
(There was and is alsoÂan alternativeÂproject --ÂKerrighed, which is
comparably good)

It doesn't look that things have changed during last 5 years.

So, those heroes from OpenSSI and Kerrighed continue to patch
kernels. Their patched kernels come out always a-bit-too-old for
an averageÂusers. I talk to well-experienced programmers, sysadmins,
data analysts, molecular biologists, etc and many of them still don't
evenÂknow what SSI is! -- yes, even those, who used to be good
PythonÂprogrammers.ÂSome say "cool", but then they hear things
likeÂ"modified Linux kernel" and become less optimistic.

The barrier is still way too high.

To my poor understanding the future of SSI was and is very
dependent on how the Linux kernel is friendly to SSI and is
dependentÂon howÂdo the kernel developers value the SSI.
I am just a usual data-mining analyst sitting on top of Ubuntu.
And I would be very thankful if you, gurus, could change things
and bring SSI-clustering closer to current modernÂLinux distributions.

Comments are very welcome!

best regards
--
Valery A.Khamenya
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