Create a group of computers together, or what would you try instead?
Create a group of computers together, or what would you try instead?
Hello. I just purchased 10 Mac minis from an education liquidation sale. They are the 2014 models and they function like brand new computers. I originally bought them to sell… But then I began considering other possibilities. Any ideas would be appreciated.
I’m particularly curious about the advantages of setting up a cluster for home use. Does it really add value, or is it mainly useful for certain tasks? Will OpenSUSE support clustering?
If I can find a way to utilize them, I’d keep them. It could also be a good selling point.
Thanks ahead for your insights!
Very few programs are designed for cluster environments, as they rely on multiple nodes, such as BOINC. Thanks to progress in cloud computing, more tools now allow tasks to be assigned to individual nodes, like Kubernetes or Docker Swarm.
Can you do it? Yes.
Will it be useful beyond a science project? Likely not.
Even when trying to figure out how to make these machines function, 2014 Macs won't match the performance of a similar model in an upgraded, newer high-end workstation or server. No clustering needed.
This presents a really interesting chance to learn something useful. However, if there’s no real advantage, I think I’ll pass. They feel unnecessary for a router setup, and I don’t require a web or file server. I’m also considering using them as TV streaming devices.
If you just want to do it for the sake of doing it, nothing wrong with that. Might be a good way to do a long term thermal stability test on all of them at once. Blender cluster comes to mind.