What is openMosixLOAF?

openMosixLOAF is a single floppy openMosix Linux mini-distro designed for diskless systems or HPC clusters where only CPU and memory is needed. It has drivers for all PCI Ethernet NICs that the Linux kernel has support for (10/100/1000). It is used to create openMosix nodes cheaply and/or on-the-fly.

Once you have installed a dedicated PC with Linux and openMosix, boot all your nodes with an openMosixLOAF floppy. Simply create a static map and watch processes originating from your dedicated node (often referred to as "homenode" or "masternode") migrate to your other nodes. openMosix will continuously attempt to optimize the resource allocation. The next release will aim to include the openMosix’ Auto Discovery tool. With the openMosix’ Auto Discovery, a new node can be added while the cluster is running and the cluster will automatically begin to use the new resources.

Briefly on openMosix

openMosix is a Linux kernel extension for single-system image clustering. This kernel extension turns a network of ordinary IA-32 computers into a supercomputer for Linux applications. There is no need to program applications specifically for openMosix. Since all openMosix extensions are inside the kernel, every Linux application automatically and transparently benefits from the distributed computing concept of openMosix. The cluster behaves much as does a Symmetric Multi-Processor, but this solution scales to well over a thousand nodes which can themselves be SMPs.

openMosix and "the open-source world progresses with giant steps. It is a world where the sun never sets and where national borders, race and religion have no meaning. What counts is the code. And that comes abundantly, and in high quality." Moshe Bar

*For the latest on the openMosix Project, head on over to their site at http://openmosix.sf.net.