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Mac Cluster computer

A business by me is going out of business and they are getting rid of 3 G5 xserve cluster nodes. I am going to start doing some heavy processor hungry rendering on my Mac Pro 8 core now. Not wanting to use up all my processor power on my mac pro I thought about setting up a Mac cluster computer. But im worried about the fact that the cluster Nodes are G5's and and my Mac pro is Intel based and am worried about compatibility issues. Could I set up a cluster computer using this hardware? And could i set it up using only ethernet cables? (using an ethernet switch). Im new to this type of thing an understand that it will be a very hard thing to accomplish since i have no experience in this type of thing. And i just have one last question, Are there any Apps or software that would make this task easier for me to accomplish?

Thanks,

John

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Dec 6, 2012 6:25 AM

Reply
15 replies

Dec 6, 2012 8:55 AM in response to Goodredroad

XGrid:


You need one modern Mac running Mac OS X Server to act as Controller. The compute nodes can be older Macs running older versions of MacOS X, or even straight-unix workstations running Open Source work-alike agents.


http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/01/06Apple-Previews-Xgrid-Technology.html


Mac OS X 10.6 Server Admin: Xgrid Overview


100-page .pdf manual:


Mac OS X Server v10.6 - Xgrid Administration and High Performance Computing

EDIT: Added a few more links

Dec 6, 2012 11:30 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Well I shouldnt be writing anything to them id only be using them for their processing, but I just had a thought which is could you use the hard drives in them as external storage also like if you partitioned the drives so that they had a small partition to run the operating system and but than use the other partion and combine them as one Raid in order to use it as 1 large hard drive for external storage.

Dec 16, 2012 7:41 PM in response to Goodredroad

Sorry, it looks like they moved it into its own Application:




About Server Admin Tools 10.7.4

The Server Admin Tools installer includes additional applications for use with Lion Server. This release includes the latest releases of:

  • Podcast Composer
  • Server Admin
  • Server Monitor
  • System Image Utility
  • Workgroup Manager
  • Xgrid Admin

For information about Server Admin Tools compatibility, see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5169.


http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1528

Mac Cluster computer

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