Editing Beowulf cluster (section)

=== Operating systems ===
{{unreferenced section|date=November 2020}}
[[File:Beowulf.jpg|thumb|A home-built Beowulf cluster composed of [[White box (computer hardware)|white box]] PCs]]

{{As of | 2014}} a number of [[Linux distribution]]s, and at least one [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]], are designed for building Beowulf clusters. These include:

* [[MOSIX]], geared toward computationally intensive, IO-low applications
* [[Rocks Cluster Distribution]], latest 2017
* [[DragonFly BSD]] OS, latest 2022
* [[Quantian]] OS latest 2006, a [[live CD|live DVD]] with scientific applications, remastered from [[Knoppix]] 
* [[Kentucky Linux Athlon Testbed]], physical installation at University of Kentucky

The following are no longer maintained:
* [[Kerrighed]] (EOL: 2013)
* [[OpenMosix]] (EOL: 2008), forked from MOSIX
* [[ClusterKnoppix]] OS, forked from [[Knoppix]] OS, forked from [[OpenMosix]]
* [[PelicanHPC]] OS latest 2016, based on [[Debian#Live images|Debian Live]]

A cluster can be set up by using Knoppix bootable CDs in combination with [[OpenMosix]]. The computers will automatically link together, without need for complex configurations, to form a Beowulf cluster using all CPUs and [[Random-access memory|RAM]] in the cluster. A Beowulf cluster is scalable to a nearly unlimited number of computers, limited only by the overhead of the network.

Provisioning of operating systems and other software for a Beowulf Cluster can be automated using software, such as [[Open Source Cluster Application Resources]]. OSCAR installs on top of a standard installation of a supported Linux distribution on a cluster's head node.