I am looking into setting up a school science lab with LTSP and I would rather use a higher-end PC as the server (for about 6 terminals) than drop the cash on a real server.

So i thought, well, why not distribute the processing amongst the 6 pent2s and the main "server" so as not put the whole load on the "server" alone? (I think that's a Beowulf, yes?)

can this be done, and still have usable terminals? or are they mutually exclusive of one another?

yes.

The two common Linux clustering solutions are OpenMosix and Beowulf. OpenMosix will work with any multithreaded application (it can export a single-threaded application to a less-busy node too). Beowulf will only work with code written for Beowulf. Clustering works best over a gigabit network.

How fast are your P2s?

Best way of evaluating is probably to try it out - burn yourself a ClusterKnoppix live CD.

thanks, win32sux. insightful and helpful, yet quite zen.

clusterknoppix, I'll have to try it. can the clusterknoppix be installed to the server? and then i add ltsp? or is that just run to boot the kernel on the terminals, and I move the cd to the next machine?

i was kinda thinking about using the edubuntu with its ltsp builtin; is there anything i add to an installation of that for cluster computing? these would be dedicated terminals, I think. or at least dedicated linux, with the option to boot into terminal, which would be useful for the cluster part of it to help the weaker computers and the not-quite-a-server...

right now i have limited machines (aka two terminals and the server) just because i want a proof of concept before i get all into this. I am guessing their speeds are 100mbps, but i don't even know and they're not plugged in. the older machines might be 10mbps and need a new ICA card for 100, which could be a pain... is the idea of 10mbps just a really bad one? the switch is limited to 100...

i'll get back when i have results (or lack thereof). thanks guys.

You want to run diskless workstations and also have them running as cluster nodes? You may find the results a bit slow on a shared 100Mbit network, although I haven't tried this myself and I know very little about LTSP.