Category Archives: Cloud Computing

Hadoop MapReduce

The Article on YDN on Hadoop was a great read but I found it very loaded for someone who first heard of Hadoop a couple of weeks ago. I did go hunting for a better, but simpler explanation of what MapReduce is, and how to apply it. I found this article on IBM. It uses a simple data set of cities and their temperatures to explain MapReduce. It also provides an interesting analogy into how the Early Romans may have ‘used’ MapReduce to conduct censuses.

I also found a set of HTML Slides on a Google Research Publication that goes that goes deeper into the inner workings of MapReduce, with an example of how they used it at Google in 2004. It also provides full C code for a word count example in the PDF version of the publication.

From the blog mrnganga » cs-wsu by mrnganga and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Hadoop MapReduce

The Article on YDN on Hadoop was a great read but I found it very loaded for someone who first heard of Hadoop a couple of weeks ago. I did go hunting for a better, but simpler explanation of what MapReduce is, and how to apply it. I found this article on IBM. It uses a simple data set of cities and their temperatures to explain MapReduce. It also provides an interesting analogy into how the Early Romans may have ‘used’ MapReduce to conduct censuses.

I also found a set of HTML Slides on a Google Research Publication that goes that goes deeper into the inner workings of MapReduce, with an example of how they used it at Google in 2004. It also provides full C code for a word count example in the PDF version of the publication.

From the blog mrnganga » cs-wsu by mrnganga and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Cloud Computing and Me

This past week I did something which I have never done before: I helped to set up a cluster to be used for cloud computing. The cluster is not yet fully armed and operational, but it’s getting there. I met up with my friend Mike one afternoon shortly after he and another of our classmates had finished putting a server rack together. We then loaded eight Dell GX270’s onto the rack and started the long and arduous process of cable management and wiring the machines together. The wiring itself went fast, but we spend about an hour and a half just working on the cable management to ensure that everything looked nice and we had easy access to everything we needed.

Once we finished with the wiring it was time to begin the OS installs. For this cluster we chose to use CentOS 6.1 since that’s what the folks over at Eucalyptus suggested we use. Sadly we were only able to get the OS up and running on two of the machines before we both had to leave to attend to other obligations.

I am very much looking forward to learning more about cloud computing. Before last Wednesday I had never set up a cluster and now I know how to use a KVM and all the other various gadgets and tech goodies that go along with setting up a cluster/server. Now I get to look forward to learning how to turn eight individual machines into a cluster, followed by learning how to use that cluster for cloud storage and processing. We aren’t even halfway through the semester and I’ve already learned a lot so I cannot wait to see what the following weeks have in store.

From the blog The Mind of Mattamizer » WSU CS by mattamizer and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.