[gpfsug-discuss] Infiniband/Ethernet gateway

[Jonathan Buzzard]

We have a mixture of 10Gb Ethernet and Infiniband connected (using 
IPoIB) nodes on our compute cluster using a DSS-G for storage. Each 
SR650 has a bonded pair of 40Gb Ethernet connections and a 40Gb 
Infiniband connection. Performance and stability are *way* better than 
the old Lustre system.

Now for this to work the Ethernet connected nodes have to be able to 
talk to the Infiniband connected ones so I have a server acting as a 
gateway. This has been running fine for a couple of years now.

However it occurs to me now that instead of having a dedicated server 
performing these duties it would make more sense to use the SR650's of 
the DSS-G. It would be one less thing for me to look after :-)

Can anyone think of a reason not to do this?

It also occurs to me that one could do some sort of VRRP style failover 
to remove the single point of failure that is currently the gateway machine.

JAB.

-- 
Jonathan A. Buzzard                         Tel: +44141-5483420
HPC System Administrator, ARCHIE-WeSt.
University of Strathclyde, John Anderson Building, Glasgow. G4 0NG