“The Linux community doesn’t have high-availability clustering
as mature as NetWare’s, but for those who need supercomputer speed
and number crunching, or who would like an inexpensive server farm
for their Web presence, there are some Linux solutions.
Depending on your application, a cluster of Linux systems
running on commodity PC hardware and inexpensive open-source
software can get you some clustering capabilities at a fraction of
the cost of many commercial systems. Still, clustering is
immature on Linux systems compared with NetWare, Windows NT, and
mainstream Unix systems such as Sun’s Solaris or Compaq’s Tru64. As
on other fronts, though, the Linux community is moving forward with
aplomb, and some Linux clustering offerings have arrived. What’s
required, as usual, is the willingness to put the pieces together
yourself.”
“Linux clusters are available in two basic forms. The most
mature Linux clustering technology comes from the Beowulf Project
(www. beowulf.org), a massive parallel-processing solution geared
toward the scientific community, which often needs
supercomputing-class performance for number crunching. For
businesses that need high availability and load balancing for their
Web, FTP, E-mail, and other services, software from the Linux
Virtual Server Project (www.linuxvirtualserver.org) and the High
Availability Linux Project (www.linux-ha.org) is available in some
Linux distributions.”