Free OpenMosix replacement? [closed]

Question

I was shocked to learn that OpenMosix is closed. Can you suggest any similar free tool for linux.

For those who don't know, OpenMosix is

a software package that turns networked computers running GNU/Linux into a cluster. It automatically balances the load between different nodes of the cluster, and nodes can join or leave the running cluster without disruption of the service. The load is spread out among nodes according to their connection and CPU speeds.

The nicest part is that you don't need to link your programs with any special libraries neither do you need to modify your programs. Just "fork and forget".

Another nice (but not must have) feature is the fact that it doesn't have to be installed on dedicated computers, but can sit on various desktop computers in your organization/lab/home etc.

I'm aware of the names of several possible solutions (for example). I'm looking for personal experience and/or nice reviews

EDIT Mosix, the predecessor of OpenMosix, used to be free (as free beer). However, now it costs money

Answer 1

I'm not sure how it compares feature-wise to OpenMosix, but Rocks is an open source cluster Linux distro.

From the website:

Rocks is an open-source Linux cluster distribution that enables end users to easily build computational clusters, grid endpoints and visualization tiled-display walls. Hundreds of researchers from around the world have used Rocks to deploy their own cluster

You may want to listen to this episode of FLOSS Weekly that is all about Rocks.

Answer 2

The closet similar free solution to the openMosix technology is Kerrighed.

Answer 3

Shamelessly ripped from the Beowulf mailing list:

OpenSSI or

Mosix If you don't need a fully open-source solution and is a non-profit.

For a much more in-depth discussion check out this thread: Beowulf - open mosix alternative

Answer 4

To help make this dead thread more useful, a more modern alternative is criu (Checkpoint and Restore In Userspace).

See for example:

https://chandanduttachowdhury.wordpress.com/2015/08/10/test-driving-criu-live-migrate-any-process-on-linux/

http://criu.org/

You might also consider containers like Docker as well or instead E.g.

http://blog.circleci.com/checkpoint-and-restore-docker-container-with-criu/

Answer 5

I looked here to get an update as I have not used openmosix since graduating, but there is now a new tech called "Mesh Computing", and also the ether of bitcoin, so processes must transport the means of getting their data to a suitable node in a secure manner, and then try to run in a fault tolerant manner. I think the answer is a HURD, which before the mesh was more of a pipe dream. I think you should go to https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html and pitch in if you have time. The mesh is upon us and there is no access to anything except agent hosting on mesh.