Setting up separate network question

[Labitt, Bruce]

Geesh, didn't mean to make it so complicated...  Ben has the concept.
He wins the prize!  (TBA)

I have an existing CentOs box.  It is a utility computer.  (More of a
boat anchor, but I digress.)  This box is on the corporate network.  It
will be the file server for my cluster.  I would also like the CentOs
computer to be a gateway to my secondary network.  I have installed a
second NIC on the CentOs box for this purpose.  The second Ethernet
would have dhcp running on it.

The secondary network consists of compute nodes.  Unfortunately they
only have one NIC and it is hard to add capability to the nodes.  If
they had two NICs this would be easier.  The secondary network will
carry the inter-node communications, as Ben said, and allow the nodes to
connect to the internet.

The secondary network exists on paper and in hardware, but is not hooked
up yet.  I have a gigabit switch and all the wiring ready.  I have two
compute nodes to start out this project.  More will follow.  I have a
dhcp.conf file ready to go... all I need to do is to type in the
command.

However, using the CentOs box as a gateway/router is not allowed on my
network, by company policy. I can see what the issues are, but it does
not make my job easier.  Using a gateway would be perfect for what I
want to do, which is to isolate the secondary network from all the
ordinary nonsense seen on the network, so my compute nodes can get on
with my calculations.

I'm trying to talk this through with my network guy, to get something
closer to the functionality I desire.  I think there is a way of doing
this...  At worst case I may have to break the connection to the
corporate network while I'm running computations.  Not elegant, but it
may be workable.

If anyone has some suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them, either on or
off list.  Thanks.

Bruce

-----Original Message-----
From: gnhlug-discuss-bounces at mail.gnhlug.org
[mailto:gnhlug-discuss-bounces at mail.gnhlug.org] On Behalf Of Ben Scott
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 1:48 PM
To: Greater NH Linux User Group
Subject: Re: Setting up separate network question

On 18 Mar 2008 10:08:14 -0400, Kevin D. Clark
<kevin_d_clark at comcast.net> wrote:
>  At this point, I don't understand the problem description.

  Yah... I'm starting to suspect this has turned into the blind men
examining the elephant.  :-)

  My own take: Bruce Labitt has an existing CentOS box.  It might be
his primary workstation, or just a utility computer.  The CentOS box
is already on the corporate network.  He wants to have make the CentOS
box act a router/gateway for a secondary network, by using a second
network interface in the CentOS box.

  The secondary network is going to service a cluster of compute
nodes.  The secondary network will carry inter-node communications,
and also serve to let the nodes connect to the Internet, for things
like software updates.

  I got to assuming the secondary network was not in existence yet,
but that may be wrong.  Maybe he's got an existing cluster, and he's
just trying to link it to the Internet.

-- Ben
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