What kind of applications can I use?

[DeZ]

From what i have read on ParallelKnoppix and openMPI, all i need to do is compile applications use the wrapper, and it will 'work', aka, utilize the full power of the nodes in the cluster.

is this correct? is there any special intrinsic an application needs to work correctly? or can i just compile the source of any application and have the load spread across all the nodes?


PS-

I plan on using parallelknoppix inside my debian installation as a head, and ill be using around 40 or 50 HP pc's as my nodes. :D

However vmware didn't like my debian installation.. >.>

[Michael Creel]

Well, that's more or less correct, but the hard part is writing source code that can take advantage of MPI. Plain source code needs to be modified to use MPI, and doing that is not necessarily simple and fast. Some apps are intrinsically serial, and can't be sped up by using parallel computing. There are some links to MPI tutorials on the PK CD that can help you get started.

[DeZ]

Although it might be looked down upon, I am specifically trying to use parallelknoppix to accelerate hash cracking methods and rainbow table generation, with john the ripper and RainbowCrack specifically.

So from what you are saying I gather its not just as simple as using the openMPI wrapper, and that I will have to modify the sources to have the application run correctly on a beowulf/pk cluster.
If this isn't correct, please explain in laymens terms how one is supposed to run any given application on a cluster correctly?

[bonfire89]

john the ripper is what has brought be here too. An no I'm not up to no good, I am here part of a 4th year university security course. The prof gave going 40 passwords at the beginning of the semester and has challenged us to crack them. I'd like to take him up on that.

[Michael Creel]

I don't think there's anything too hard about getting john the ripper to work on Pelican. I saw a video by a couple of Russian guys who did precisely that. I'm quite sure that it will work, but I don't know the details. Obviously learning about security is a good thing, but I guess that everyone also will understand why I don't distribute Pelican with paswword cracking software pre-installed.