Tune UNIX for large clusters

The following hardware and software specifications are requirements for a large cluster that supports 5,000 hosts and 100,000 jobs at any one time.

Hardware recommendation

LSF master host:

Four processors, one each for:
- mbatchd
- mbschd
- lim
- Operating system
10-GB RAM

Software requirement

To meet the performance requirements of a large cluster, increase the file descriptor limit of the operating system.

The file descriptor limit of most operating systems used to be fixed, with a limit of 1024 open files. Some operating systems, such as Linux and AIX, have removed this limit, allowing you to increase the number of file descriptors.