[Pvfs2-users] PVFS2 on a large cluster

[Vikrant Kumar]

Hello,

I have been running pvfs2 over IB for evaluation purposes on a four node 
cluster, with server and clients sharing the same nodes. Now I want to 
move to a bigger cluster and seeing the performance so far I'm quite 
confident about it. Just wanted to address a couple of issues before I 
commit myself to the upgrade:

1. I understand that a 1.6 release is around the corner. Can anyone 
provide a more definite time? Would be really helpful to plan things on 
my side.

2. I have a cluster with 11 nodes connected with Infiniband . Each node 
has four Opteron cores. My application uses MPI IO and I would like to 
test it up to 32 way. Given the cluster and the application requirement, 
what would be the ideal number of servers for this set-up? I was 
thinking either four or eight PVFS2 servers, being shared with the 
computing-cores on some nodes.
I have read the FAQ entry and I guess this is a very general question. 
But I just wanted to get a quick review of the layout from you guys.

3. Another thing is when a node is rebooted. The provided script file 
"pvfs2-server.rc" can take care of the server but what about client 
application, the kernel module and the mount point? Is there a way to 
automate the startup of all these as well. I think this would be a 
critical thing for this bigger installation.

Any help in understanding these issues would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Vikrant