| 18 Sep 2025 |
 Kacper Uminski | No, I'm just a member of Lysator (lysator.liu.se), a computer association in Linköping, and we are currently building an HPC cluster. Just as a cool tidbit, Nationella Superdatorcentrum (NSC) does the torrent-boot thing. | 13:39:00 |
 markuskowa | In reply to @kacper.uminski:matrix.org
Yes, I realize the idea is quite cursed. The main idea is to minimize stress on the control node, so a centralized cache or pxe server for the full filesystem is a no-no. All filesystems have to be reformatted on reboot, including /nix/store. We already have a setup like this working with Debian, but it's hacked together using shell-scripts, python, and preseed files. Hence I am investigating alternatives. :) I do not have the overview over your setup/requirements, but i use this PXE setup as an installer. There are many options, such as overlayfs, that you use here to customize it. | 13:40:15 |
 lillecarl | @kacper.uminski:matrix.org: Boot off iPXE, dd the image to disk, kexec, rebuild. You can have multiple cache servers and will easily be able to saturate your links with NGINX from *a few* cache servers. You can share the same signing key across them and use RR DNS for loadbalancing.
The torrent thing sounds like a solution to "immutable Debian" rather than content delivery | 13:46:19 |
| lillecarl | It'll be faster, no torrent startup time, only fetch what your node needs etc... :) | 13:50:16 |
| Kacper Uminski | Hmm, I will try this. Thank you! | 13:53:24 |
| Kacper Uminski | Just by the way, I am quite new to netbooting as a whole, so I do ask for leniency anytime I utter something unspeakably stupid. :) | 13:58:58 |
| markuskowa | Kacper Uminski: I run a small hpc cluster (20 nodes) at Fysikum, SU fully on NixOS. If you're interested i can show, how it is setup. | 15:42:05 |
| Kacper Uminski | That would be very cool! Do you have a git repo for it or something? | 15:47:29 |
