From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Mar 2 07:17:38 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id HAA26081 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Mon, 2 Mar 1998 07:17:38 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from mail.primelink.com (mail.primelink.com [206.24.58.7]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id HAA26071 for ; Mon, 2 Mar 1998 07:17:30 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from kbrown@primelink.com) Received: from mystic ([206.24.58.91]) by mail.primelink.com (post.office MTA v1.9.3 ID# 0-11777) with SMTP id AAA104 for ; Mon, 2 Mar 1998 09:28:19 -0600 Message-Id: <3.0.32.19980302091214.00acc320@mail.primelink.com> X-Sender: darkstar@mail.primelink.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0 (32) Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 09:12:14 -0600 To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG From: Kevin Brown Subject: FreeBSD in a multi-processor/machine array Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Greetings, I am beginning to do some procurement of smaller 286, 386, and 486 machines (ISA/VESA architecture) from the state surplus. It seems they are making moves throughout the state system to get on Pentium class machines in a hurry. (No doubt to support the MS bloatware). Anyway, they are selling off these older machines for about $5 each. I expect to take delivery of about 20-40 machines, and am looking for a way to breath some new life into them using FreeBSD. Is there an easily deployable mechanism in FreeBSD which would allow me to any/all of the following: 1) Maintain one central server (dual pentium) with full FreeBSD source. 2) Allow the smaller machines to boot their operating system from the central server utilizing perhaps only a floppy drive. 3) Provision the machines so that they rely upon the mass processing abilities of their neighbors to complete tasks. 4) Where applicable share drive space across an Ethernet or Fast Ethernet connection. 5) Allow remote users to login via telnet or ssh to the central server and have the ability to harness the full processing ability of the array. Without having to play magical chairs on logging into multiple machines. I am still in the planning stages on this, and am looking for good solid ideas from past experience, minimum requirements per machine, etc. Please send all replies to me directly: kbrown@primelink.com Thanks much for the assistance! Kevin Brown /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Kevin Brown -- Networking Technologies Huber & Associates IBM Business Partner Cisco Authorized Reseller finger: kbrown@mail.primelink.com website: http://www.primelink.com/haa phone: 573-634-5000 fax: 573-893-5500 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message