cluster computing?

[Wolf52]

I have heard that it is possible to connect different computers together in a way that would essentially pool their processing power and resources. After a short look on wikipedia about this, I failed to find any real applications for something which is more in my area of interest: games. I guess my main questions are:

1) How would i go about doing this/what hardware or software is required
2) Is it possible to use such a setup for a single dedicated server
3) Is it possible to use the setup for running a game on a single computer in the network

This idea mostly came to my mind since i have a few older computers that dont stand very well on their own but might be pretty good if they worked together.

 

[Perfection]

Computer games are not written in a way that allows for good parallel processing on independent machines.

You're pretty much SOL.

 

[Cutlass]

I don't think you can run any games that way. And the reason is that the game's programs are not designed to be distributed. A multi core processor computer, or a multi cpu motherboard computer do a form of cluster computing, but do it internally in a way that the programs can handle. Going external to one computer requires protocols they are not designed for.

What clustering is used for is 1) servers that have to take a very big load and/or cannot have down time and 2) huge workloads that are designed to be spread over a group of computers instead of using supercomputers or at least mainframes.

I don't know if software is available to allow you to do that on your own.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I googled it and somehow came up with this. Not real useful but hilarious.

 

[Wolf52]

I googled it and somehow came up with this. Not real useful but hilarious.

Haha, hilarious for sure.

I had a feeling that i wouldnt be able to run games over multiple computers, but would dedicated servers still fall into this category?

 

[Cutlass]

Many dedicated servers use cluster computing. As I say, it both adds power and reliability. If you want a database that can never be offline, for example, then rather than try for perfection in one computer, you run it over several. So the failure of one is not the failure of all.

 

[Wolf52]

Cool. That was probably going to be my main use, now i just have to pick a game that i want to run a server of. Do you know of what i might need to buy in order to make this work? I figured it might just need ethernet or something.

 

[Cutlass]

Ethernet is the simple way to connect computers. And the cheap one. If it isn't fast enough with the 100Mb ethernet that most motherboards over the past 5 or 6 years comes with, you can get gigabyte ethernet expansion cards.

 

[Wolf52]

Ethernet is the simple way to connect computers. And the cheap one. If it isn't fast enough with the 100Mb ethernet that most motherboards over the past 5 or 6 years comes with, you can get gigabyte ethernet expansion cards.

Ok, that makes this very feasible then. What about special software though? I'm pretty sure ive never run across any way to do it in sort of a zero config way.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Googled and this is what I found.
http://www.scl.ameslab.gov/Projects/parallel_computing/cluster_design.html

 

[Cutlass]

Software I don't know. There are some aspects of clustering you can do natively with the server versions of Windows. But if you don't have access to that then you'll have to hunt up some stuff or ask someone else.

 

[Wolf52]

Googled and this is what I found.
http://www.scl.ameslab.gov/Projects/parallel_computing/cluster_design.html

Whew, lots of new stuff to learn there... the main problem im getting from that page is the fact that i would need linux, which i have absolutely zero experience with. That would probably also make it harder to run servers for windows based computers, id think. Right now all the candidate computers are running xp pro.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Dual-boot.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

If you do Content Creation, especially 3D work, you can build a render cluster. Google that and you're bound to find a few guides on how to do it ( I remember reading a few ).
The other problem with clusters is that depending on what you do, a single new machine may just be more efficient. For instance, I can use my tons of P3 cpu's to build a cluster to do something like Folding@Home, but my single GTX260 will use less power and chew through more Work Units in the same period of time. Plus more and more professional CC apps are becoming equipped to use GPGPU, especially nVidia's CUDA and OpenCL.
As for gaming, you'd first off need an OS that recognizes the cluster as a single machine with multiple processors, or that can efficiently handle data transfer to them. Mind you, newer games have very high bandwidth requirements, so in order to use a network to connect them, you'd need something like 10GigE, Infiniband 4X QDR or external PCIe x16. Even then, you'd need to have some beefy networking hardware on the control system simply because it would have to deal with n connections, each of which would have to be extremely fast. Its just not something financially feasable, nor useful.
A cluster is meant less to be high I/O and more for data crunching. You send a packet of work to a node, it goes through it, sends back result. That way, your hardware requirements get a lot smaller.

 

[GoodGame]

I googled it and somehow came up with this. Not real useful but hilarious.

"Hot Swappable Furby"? pretty funny