DYNER: a DYNamic clustER for education and research

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the use of a non‐expensive dynamic computing resource, consisting of a Beowulf class cluster and a NoW, as an educational and research infrastructure.

Design/methodology/approach

Clusters, built using commodity‐off‐the‐shelf (COTS) hardware components and free, or commonly used, software, provide an inexpensive computing resource to educational institutions. The Department of Informatics of TEI, Athens, has built a dynamic clustering system consisting of a Beowulf‐class cluster and a NoW called DYNER (DYNamic clustER). This paper evaluates the use of the DYNER system, as a platform for running the laboratory work of various courses (parallel computing, operating systems, distributed computing), as well as various parallel applications in the framework of research, which is in progress under on‐going research projects. Three distinct groups from the academic community of the TEI of Athens can benefit directly from the DYNER platform: the students of the Department of Informatics, the faculty members and researchers of the department, and researchers from other departments of the institution.

Findings

The results obtained were positive and satisfactory. The use of the dynamic cluster offers to the students new abilities regarding high performance computing, which will improve their potential for professional excellence.

Research limitations/implications

The implications of this research study are that the students clarified issues, such as “doubling the number of processors does not mean doubling execution speed”, and learned how to build and configure a cluster without going deeply into the complexity of the software set‐up.

Practical implications

This research provides students with the ability to gain hands‐on experience on a not very common to them but useful platform, and faculty members – from a variety of disciplines – to get more computing power for their research.

Originality/value

This paper presents a dynamic clustering system where, its versatility and flexibility with respect to configuration and functionality, together with its dynamic, strong computational power, renders it to a very helpful tool for educational and research purposes.

Citation

Kehagias, D., Grivas, M., Mamalis, B. and Pantziou, G. (2006), "DYNER: a DYNamic clustER for education and research", Campus-Wide Information Systems, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 92-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/10650740610654474