Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Scientists get a million Linux kernels to run at once
tgdaily.com ^ | Monday, August 03, 2009 06:22 | By the writing staff

Posted on 08/07/2009 10:45:08 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, have run more than a million Linux kernels as virtual machines.

The technique will allow them to effectively observe behaviour found in malicious botnets, or networks of infected machines that can operate on the scale of a million nodes.

One of the researchers Ron Minnich, said they are often difficult to analyze since they are geographically spread all over the world.

However using virtual machine and a Thunderbird supercomputing cluster for the demonstration, the team was able to run VMS at a similar scale as a botnet.

This  allows cyber researchers to watch how botnets work and explore ways to stop them in their tracks said Minnich.

The largest number of kernals that had been run at once was 20,000 kernels.  However the more kernels that can be run at once the more effective cyber security professionals can be in combating the global botnet problem.

The hope is one day to emulate the computer network of a small nation, or even one as large as the United States, in order to ‘virtualise’ and monitor a cyber attack.”

“The sheer size of the Internet makes it very difficult to understand in even a limited way,” said Minnich.
It has been estimated that the team will need to run 100 million CPUs by 2018 in order to build a computer that will run at the speeds they need.

(Excerpt) Read more at tgdaily.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: botnets; hitech; malware
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-24 last
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Quite interesting article. And the Plan 9 mention brings back memories. I had walked past their offices located on the six floor of Bell Labs HQ Murry Hill NJ., many years ago, where I on occasions worked with sister departments (located on other floors of the building) that provided the CAD tools for my Poly Cell/ASIC Design Group at the Allentown PA location.
Old memories but good ones. Now I have two old servers sitting in my basement with different Linux releases I don't even turn on. To busy working for a living and trying to keep informed via. Free Republic.
21 posted on 08/07/2009 4:16:06 PM PDT by Marine_Uncle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Hmm...HERE is xkcd's take... :-)
22 posted on 08/07/2009 4:23:30 PM PDT by Billthedrill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill

I love that one!


23 posted on 08/08/2009 7:58:26 PM PDT by SeƱor Zorro ("The ability to speak does not make you intelligent"--Qui-Gon Jinn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: SeeSharp
So was it Linux or was it VMS? If it was VMS I'm guessing they didn't buy a million licenses. Linux kernals running under VMS.
24 posted on 08/08/2009 8:01:05 PM PDT by ColdWater
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-24 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson