Setting Up a Cluster of Tiny PCs for Parallel Computing

Summary

Enjoyed learning the process of setting up a cluster of tiny PCs for parallel computing. A note to myself on installing Ubuntu, passwordless SSH, automating package installation across nodes, distributing R simulations, and comparing CV5 vs CV10 performance. Fun project! Motivations Part of something I want to learn this year is getting a little more into parallel computing. How we can distribute simulation computations across different devices. Lately, we have more reasons to do this because quite a few of our simulations require long running computation and leaving my laptop running overnight or several days is just not a good use it. We have also tried cloud computing as well and without knowing how those distributed cores are, well, distributed, it’s hard for me to conceptualize how these are done and what else we could optimize. Hence, what is a better way of doing it on our own! Sit tight, this is going to be a bumpy one. Let’s go! Objectives Which PCs to Get? Preferably something functional and cheap! Something like a used Lenovo M715q Tiny PCs or something similar. Install Ubuntu Download Ubuntu Server Create a bootable USB using balenaEtcher When starting Lenovo up, press F12 continuously until it shows an option to boot from USB. If F12 does not work, reboot and press F1 to BIOS. Go to Startup Tab, change CSM Support to Enabled. Then set Primary Boot Priority to USB by moving priority to first. Then F10 to save configuration and exit. It will then reboot to USB. Make sure it’s connected to internet via LAN for smoother installation. Follow the instructions to install Ubuntu, setting username, password etc. Then reboot. Make sure to remove USB drive, if you didn’t it’ll remind you. Et voila! The installations were very quick, compared to the other OS I’ve installed in the past. Very smooth as well. I thoroughly enjoyed seeting these up. Align and Fix IPs For organizational purpose, make sure you go to your router setting and set your computer clusters to co...