openMosix

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Transfers in an openMosix cluster.

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 Live CDs.

1 History
2 Live CDs
3 References
4 See also
5 External links
- 5.1 openMosix Cluster sites

[edit] History

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, and porting to Linux 2.6 kernel remains in the beta stage. 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.^[1]

OpenMosix used to be distributed as a Gentoo Linux kernel choice, but it was removed from Gentoo Linux's Portage tree in February of 2007.^[2]

As of March 1, 2008, openMosix read-only source code is still hosted at SourceForge.^[3] The LinuxPMI project is continuing development of the former openMosix code.

[edit] Live CDs

GNU/Linux Live CDs with openMosix include:

dyne:bolic
clusterKnoppix, (not maintained anymore)
Quantian, a scientific distribution based on clusterKnoppix
PlumpOS
CHAOS (a very small boot CD)
clusterix, based on Morphix, Knoppix and Debian

[edit] References

^ Bar, Moshe (2007-07-15). openMosix Project End of Life Announcement. SourceForge.net. Retrieved on 2007-07-18.
^ Gianelloni, Chris; Mark Kowarsky, Donnie Berkholz, Daniel Black, Diego Pettenò, Kieth Gable. "Gentoo package moves", Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, Gentoo Foundation, Inc., 2007-02-19. Retrieved on 2007-10-12.
^ the openMosix Project (2008-03-01). Retrieved on 2008-03-01.