openMosix

openMosix Official

openMosix is a free cluster management system that provides single-system image (SSI) capabilities, e.g. automatic work distribution among nodes. It allows program processes (not threads) to migrate to machines in the node's network that would be able to run that process faster (process migration). It is particularly useful for running parallel and intensive input/output (I/O) applications. It is released as a Linux kernel patch, but is also available on specialized LiveCDs.

openMosix was originally forked from MOSIX by Moshe Bar on February 10, 2002 when MOSIX became proprietary software.

openMosix is considered stable on Linux kernel 2.4.x for the x86 architecture, while porting to Linux 2.6 kernel is still under development. Support for the 64-bit AMD64 architecture only starts with the 2.6 version.

On July 15, 2007, Bar announced that the openMOSIX project will reach its end of life on March 1, 2008, due to the decreasing need for SSI clustering as low-cost multi-core processors increase in availability.

World's Largest Linux System Image

 

SGI

Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10

SGI® Altix® 4700 blade platform and a beta version of SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server 10 from Novell, SGI demonstrated a single system image (SSI) running on a world-record 1,024 processors. Until that moment, the largest Linux SSI operated on 512 processors - another SGI record.

The record-breaking Altix 4700 system is now installed in Munich, Germany, at the Leibniz Computing Centre Munich (LRZ). LRZ houses Germany's National Supercomputer System, and the Altix 4700 installation marked the completion of LRZ's Phase I deployment, which incorporates 4,096 Intel® Itanium® 2 processors, 17TB of global shared memory, and a 330TB SGI InfiniteStorage solution.