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Fun use for cluster?

nhpr

I have an bunch of old computers and I was thinking of clustering them together for fun. Can anyone think of any sort of good reason to do this, or is "fun" really all that there is? I can't think of any good use for a large amount of computation power.

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Comments

mikedisd2

Admin without a cause? James Dean would be proud.

Bl8ckr0uter

Honeypot?

Blogs | The Honeynet Project

tiersten

nhpr wrote: »

I can't think of any good use for a large amount of computation power.

How old is old exactly? I doubt that it is actually a large amount of computation power considering the work required and the amount of actual electrical power it will consume. A new PC or two would probably blow it out of the water unless you have a very large number of these old PCs. If you're making a cluster from old machines then it'll be for research, training or "just because" reasons.

undomiel

Put it together for the experience. Then it break it and recover it for an even better experience.

UnixGuy

Make a nice lab environment, test everything you want to test there.

If you can have remote access to the cluster from home, you can start a training service.

nhpr

How old is old exactly? I doubt that it is actually a large amount of computation power considering the work required and the amount of actual electrical power it will consume.

This is a good point. I've got three boxes that average about 10 years in age. I hadn't considered their relative power inefficiency.

A honeynet sounds like more fun, but wouldn't I be held liable if, for example, my machines were used in a DDoS? ...Or does honeypot software just emulate the outbound traffic while emitting nothing?

DevilWAH

Learn cluster compution methods,

work package based (folding at home, seti )

and Beowolf clusters.

Then get a job at a university running computer modeling clusters.

wright a simple script to find prime numbers and use your cluster to work it out.

As for computer power, when I worked with clusters we found that five five year old desk top PC's could put a single £6000 server to shame in many applicatios.