“A wave of Linux clustered machines has been anticipated since
1994, when the Goddard Space Flight Center produced the first
Beowulf cluster. But only recently have the tools become available
for the Linux cluster to become a more manageable engine on the
Internet.”
“Today, Linux clusters are functioning as high-availability Web
servers, domain name servers and mail servers running standard,
nonparallel applications. One of the largest Linux cluster sites is
the 6,000-node engine behind the Google search site, says Richard
Schuh, chief operating officer at Linux NetworX, a Sandy, Utah,
Linux cluster start-up.”
“We believe in the superior price/performance of the Linux
cluster,” Schuh says, “but they won’t get adopted into the
mainstream unless there are tools to administer them like single
systems.” Linux NetworX and other suppliers — such as
Rainfinity, Red Hat, Silicon Graphics Inc., SteelEye Technology,
TurboLinux and VA Linux Systems — have brought clustering
management software to market over the past few months to make
Linux clusters more manageable.”