46 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
46 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
# warewulf v4
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#### Quick Links:
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* [Documentation](https://warewulf.readthedocs.io)
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* [GitHub](http://github.com/ctrliq/warewulf)
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## About Warewulf
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### History
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For over two decades, Warewulf has powered HPC systems around the world. From simple “under the desk” clusters to large
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institutional systems at HPC centers as well as enterprises who rely on performance critical computing.
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Through the evolution of Warewulf, we have seen various iterations provisioning models starting from CDROM / ISO images
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to Etherboot (predecessor to PXE), then PXE, and more recently iPXE, but even during these different bootloaders,
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Warewulf in it’s heart, has always been first and foremost a stateless provisioning system (e.g. the operating system
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node image is not written to any persistent storage and rather it boots from the network directly into a runtime
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system).
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Warewulf v3 has been in production for over 6 years now as it has stabilized into a very solid and full featured
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solution. But over the last few years, there have been many innovations in Enterprise technologies which can (and
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should) be leveraged as part of Warewulf. Additionally, some of the lessons learned from Warewulf v3 architecture
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should be rolled into an updated architecture for provisioning management.
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### Warewulf v4
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Leveraging this legacy of provisioning and cluster management brings us to where we are today. The next generation
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of Warewulf. Warewulf v4 is a complete rewrite in GoLang, taking in the legacy of what we've come to expect with
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Warewulf, bringing it into the present, and looking out into the future.
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Warewulf v4 combines ultra scalability, flexibility, and simplicity with being light weight, non-intrusive, and a
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great tool for scientists and seasoned system administrators alike. Warewulf empowers you to scalably and easily manage
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thousands of compute resources.
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### Architecture
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One of the design tenants of Warewulf is how to scalably administrate many thousands of compute nodes. Generally
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speaking, operating system state introduce a surface for potential discrepancies and version creep between nodes and
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thus Warewulf has always gone with the "single system image" approach to clustered operating system management.
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This means that you can have a single management node "image". For the last 20 years, we've been calling this a
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Virtual Node File System (VNFS), but in hindsight, this is a container.
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At its core, Warewulf v4 focuses on what has made Warewulf so widely loved: simplicity, ultra scalable, lightweight,
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and an easy to manage solution built for both scientists and seasons system administrators to be able to design a
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highly functional yet easy to maintain cluster no matter how big or small or customized it needs to be.
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