Commodity supercomputing clusters known as Beowulf clusters, have become a low cost alternative to traditional supercomputers. Beowulf clusters combine inexpensive computers and specialized software to achieve supercomputing power. The processing nodes in a diskless Beowulf cluster do not have a local hard disk unlike the nodes in most commodity clusters. Research has provided performance information for diskless clusters built with expensive, high performance equipment. Beowulf clusters use commodity off-the-shell hardware, and little information is available about their performance. This research includes the construction of several diskless Beowulf clusters. Using the NAS Parallel Benchmarks, the performance of these clusters was measured. Through analysis of these measurements, a descriptive performance model of diskless Beowulf clusters was produced.
","abstract_html":"<p>Commodity supercomputing clusters known as Beowulf clusters, have become a low cost alternative to traditional supercomputers. Beowulf clusters combine inexpensive computers and specialized software to achieve supercomputing power. The processing nodes in a diskless Beowulf cluster do not have a local hard disk unlike the nodes in most commodity clusters. Research has provided performance information for diskless clusters built with expensive, high performance equipment. Beowulf clusters use commodity off-the-shell hardware, and little information is available about their performance. This research includes the construction of several diskless Beowulf clusters. Using the NAS Parallel Benchmarks, the performance of these clusters was measured. Through analysis of these measurements, a descriptive performance model of diskless Beowulf clusters was produced.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Nielson, Curtis R."],"institution":"Brigham Young University - Provo","degree_name":"MS","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":null,"date_issued":"","date_published":null,"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:27:25Z","subjects":["clustered computing","parallel computing","Beowulf cluster","Linux cluster","cluster","diskless cluster","parallel processing","NAS parallel benchmark","benchmarking","Construction Engineering and Management","Manufacturing"],"languages":["English"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/98","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Nielson, Curtis R."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2003-09-16T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Brigham Young University - Provo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["MS"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["clustered computing","parallel computing","Beowulf cluster","Linux cluster","cluster","diskless cluster","parallel processing","NAS parallel benchmark","benchmarking","Construction Engineering and Management","Manufacturing"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/98","https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/context/etd/article/1097/viewcontent/ETD_CISOPTR_64.pdf"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Technology"]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Commodity supercomputing clusters known as Beowulf clusters, have become a low cost alternative to traditional supercomputers. Beowulf clusters combine inexpensive computers and specialized software to achieve supercomputing power. The processing nodes in a diskless Beowulf cluster do not have a local hard disk unlike the nodes in most commodity clusters. Research has provided performance information for diskless clusters built with expensive, high performance equipment. Beowulf clusters use commodity off-the-shell hardware, and little information is available about their performance. This research includes the construction of several diskless Beowulf clusters. Using the NAS Parallel Benchmarks, the performance of these clusters was measured. Through analysis of these measurements, a descriptive performance model of diskless Beowulf clusters was produced.
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"],"dc:format":["application:pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/98","https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/context/etd/article/1097/viewcontent/ETD_CISOPTR_64.pdf"],"dc:language":["English"],"dc:publisher":["Brigham Young University - Provo"],"dc:source":["Brigham Young University - Provo"],"dc:subject":["clustered computing","parallel computing","Beowulf cluster","Linux cluster","cluster","diskless cluster","parallel processing","NAS parallel benchmark","benchmarking","Construction Engineering and Management","Manufacturing"],"dc:title":["A Descriptive Performance Model of Small, Low Cost, Diskless Beowulf Clusters"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["MS"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:27:25Z"}