Most stable kernel for mpich2 cluster?

Most stable kernel for mpich2 cluster?

[Christopoulos Panagiotis]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is the right place for questions like these, but I will 
give a try.
I build a cluster for Technological Institute of Athens, here, in Greece, with 
linux of course. My hardware is sixteen HP DL380 with 3.00GHz Xeon(do not 
laugh, I know that my cluster is too small for those, some of you, design and 
maintain). I want to install the pure vanilla-sources but I have problem to 
decide the best version. 2.6.18.1 is out but I think that it' s not a good 
idea to install the latest kernel, so, I would like to tell me your 
opinion(eg, I think debian is using 2.6.8(too old!)).
What would you do?	

I appreciate your help,
with regards,
Panos

Re: Most stable kernel for mpich2 cluster?

[Jakob Oestergaard]

On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 02:30:00PM +0300, Christopoulos Panagiotis wrote:
> Hi,
> 
...
> idea to install the latest kernel, so, I would like to tell me your 
> opinion(eg, I think debian is using 2.6.8(too old!)).
> What would you do?	

First, I would join the Beowulf mailing list which deals with exactly
this kind of questions, among many other things  :)

 http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf


-- 

 / jakob

Re: Most stable kernel for mpich2 cluster?

[Alan Cox]

Ar Maw, 2006-10-17 am 14:30 +0300, ysgrifennodd Christopoulos
Panagiotis:
> decide the best version. 2.6.18.1 is out but I think that it' s not a good 
> idea to install the latest kernel, so, I would like to tell me your 
> opinion(eg, I think debian is using 2.6.8(too old!)).
> What would you do?	

The older kernels shipped by vendors are not "vanilla source" because
that would lack all the bug and security fixing done. 

Alan

Re: Most stable kernel for mpich2 cluster?

[Christopoulos Panagiwtis]

On Tuesday 17 October 2006 16:40, Alan Cox wrote:
> The older kernels shipped by vendors are not "vanilla source" because
> that would lack all the bug and security fixing done.
>
> Alan

You are right, I understand this now, I knew the meaning of "vanilla source" 
but didn't come in my mind that 	debian 2.6.8 for example is not vanilla 
source but a tree based on vanilla including patches from debian developers, 
sorry. I will follow Jacob's advice and I will ask in beowulf mailing list 
about what kernel I should use. I am two days in linux kernel lists and I can 
see that you work really hard here, so I won't annoy you again with such 
questions.

keep up the good work, all of you,

Panos 

(Alan, we have a poster of you in my university:p)