[hiep.nguyentrong]

Hi all,

My cluster have 2 CPUs each, so i need 1 port ethernet for each cluster or each CPU? Does more ethernet port connect to switch will be better for parallel cluster?

[wkernkamp]

I assume you have two machines. That is small for a cluster. For CFD I think you will be fine with Gb ethernet per machine. However, more bandwidth is always nice.

[hiep.nguyentrong]

Originally Posted by wkernkamp

I assume you have two machines. That is small for a cluster. For CFD I think you will be fine with Gb ethernet per machine. However, more bandwidth is always nice.

I have 4 machines, each have 2 cpu. Now, i want to add 10Gb Ethernet to all. My question is: each machine need one 10Gb Ethernet port or i must have 1 for each cpu (thats mean 2 for each machine). Will more ethernet port help to speed up the simulation? ( assume all ethernet is 10Gb)

[flotus1]

You don't need one network adapter per socket. One per machine is what's usually done.
If the node interconnect should turn out to be the bottleneck, the solution is not adding more network cards, but switching to an interconnect that is better suited for this application. Infiniband for example. It provides much higher bandwidth and lower latency compared to Ethernet.
Whether 10gig Ethernet limits inter-node scaling depends on your type of application, and how fast the nodes are. I would not want to take a guess here. You could even try whatever Ethernet adapter the machines already have, and see how that goes. Probably a good idea before investing in new equipment.