High load application (Matlab distributed computing) in a jail?

[madtulip]

Hello guys.

I would like to integrate my nas hardware into my matlab distributed computing network. Its a math application where i hammer for hours on GBs of data. The toolbox allows to split the iteration of i.e. independen for loops to different computers/CPUs/threads.

As i in principle like to keep the main freenas OS clean of installs i was thinking to create this working threads inside a jail. Im not sure about the performance impact of applications running in jail versus thos running in the main freeNAS OS. The application is assumed to compleetly bog down all hardware ressources and its the time gain from distributed computing im after.

So will i get big performance drops while running this 99% load processes in jails and should instead install it in the freeNAS main OS layer like it would happen with virtual machines? Or is the architekture of the software somehow different in a native freeBSD jail and its ok to run the tasks in a jail in order to have a cleaner seperation inside the system?

As the nativ jails are the same OS as the main one and i didnt see any virtualization of CPUs, drives or RAM i thought probably the jails are quite efficient in beeing executed and the main OS is able to distribute resources to the jail processes effectively without much overhead?

thanks for any advice!

 

[diedrichg]

Matlab is in fact a port on FreshPorts so you can definitely install it in a jail. http://www.freshports.org/math/matlab-installer/
You definitely don't want to install any software that would live within the OS architecture as you never know what packages will interfere. Let's say that FreeNAS EXPECTS to see version 1.2 of package X but because you installed software B that requires version 2.0 of package X then FreeNAS could begin to have issues and next thing you know you are getting random reboots or data loss. This is an extreme example but it is conceivable.

 

[SweetAndLow]

You can't install packages into the main freenas is it wasn't designed for that. You should run it in a jail and there won't be a performance penalty because jails don't do virilization they just sandbox process.

 

[DrKK]

Yeah, what SweetAndLow said.

The concept of "installing a package" onto the main FreeNAS appliance itself does not really exist at all. That's precisely what a jail is for, in the FreeNAS universe.