[Bio-Linux] Bio-Linux server to submit to Ubuntu cluster

[Tony Travis]

On 19/08/15 22:07, Ryan Johnson wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I have a cluster with 128 compute nodes that run vanilla Ubutnu 14.04
> and a PBS/Torque system. We run Galaxy as a separate machine with
> Bio-Linux 8 (which can be though of as the Galaxy head node). Currently
> to make it work I have the following directories exported as NFS mounts
> into the cluster compute nodes:
> 
> /etc/galaxy-server/
> /var/lib/galaxy-server
> /usr/lib/galaxy-server
> 
> We also have a cluster wide user called Debian-galaxy (which lives on
> the NIS *Yellow Pages*). Is this considered a safe and efficient way to
> operate our production Galaxy cluster?

Hi, Ryan.

There is no 100% safe way to operate a cluster if you expose the
internal (cluster) network. I ran a Bio-Linux Beowulf with three
separate network fabrics: System, Application and LAN. You should only
export the NFS shares to cluster nodes on a private network and your NIS
should be confined to the private network too.

The design I used was based on EPCC (Edinburgh Parallel Computing
Centre) BOBCAT (Budget Optimised Beowulf Constructed using Affordable
technology). The most important/innovative aspect of BOBCAT was the
separation of internal network fabrics for performance, but the same
applies to separation of network fabrics for security reasons.

HTH,

  Tony.

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