Introduction

The Cluster Overview and Terminology Guide describes the Scyld ClusterWare system architecture and design and basic terminology necessary to properly configure and administer a ClusterWare cluster.

This Scyld ClusterWare Installation & Administrator Guide is intended for use by Scyld ClusterWare administrators and advanced users. As is typical for any Linux-based system, the administrator must have root privileges (if only via sudo) to perform many of the administrative tasks described in this document.

This guide provides specific information about tools and methods for setting up and maintaining the cluster, the cluster boot process, ways to control cluster usage, methods for batching jobs and controlling the job queue, how load balancing is handled in the cluster, and optional tools that can be useful in administrating your cluster.

This guide is written with the assumption that the administrator has a background in a Unix or Linux operating environment; therefore, the document does not cover basic Linux system administration. If you do not have sufficient knowledge for using or administering a Linux system, we recommend that you first study other resources, either in print or online.

When appropriate, this document refers the reader to other parts of the Scyld documentation set for more detailed explanations for various topics, such as the Reference Guide, which provides greater details about commands, and various appendices.