[cfarm-users] Future of cfarm186/cfarm187/cfarm188 at OSUOSL

[Jeffrey Walton]

On Sat, Nov 15, 2025 at 7:10 AM Baptiste Jonglez via cfarm-users
<cfarm-users at lists.tetaneutral.net> wrote:
>
> As some of you may know, OSUOSL is moving to a new datacenter.
>
> All "exotic" hosts (POWER etc) will be moved, it should be transparent
> except for a bit of downtime.
>
> However, the three x86 machines (cfarm186, 187, 188) are getting quite
> old, so OSUOSL is looking at replacing them with newer hardware.  We
> probably won't be able to keep as many machines.
>
> Here are two possible options to start the discussion:
>
> - option 1: one much bigger machine, bare metal.  Which (single) OS makes the most sense?
>
> - option 2: several virtual machines.  Which (multiple) OS would be useful?

I think Hurd would make a good choice to help with portability of
C/C++ programs for a couple of reasons.

First, Hurd lacks PATH_MAX and friends, and it is a surprise to some
program authors, and a pain in the butt for package maintainers and
porters.  Also see
<https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/community/gsoc/project_ideas/maxpath.html>.

Second, setting up a Hurd virtual machine has some sharp edges.  It is
not as easy as setting up a Debian or Red Hat vm.  If a vm was already
available, it could help folks interested in porting to Hurd since the
machine is already available.

> What do you think?
>
> Here, "big" means dual-socket Intel Xeon Platinum 8280, so 56 cores / 112
> threads, with 768 GB RAM.

Jeff