HPC

From Consultancy.EdVoncken.NET

Contents 1 HPC Cluster toolkits 1.1 Red Hat HPC 2 Message Passing Interface (MPI) 3 Storage 3.1 NFS 3.2 GFS 4 Platform Computing 4.1 Platform Lava 4.2 Platform Open Cluster Stack 5 Rocks Clusters 6 Useful websites

HPC, or High Performance Computing, is a specialized form of computing, with a growing number of users. It is mostly associated with highly computational workloads.

With current CPU clock speeds stabilizing around 3GHz, the trend has shifted towards integrating multiple CPU cores on a single chip. These multi-core CPUs need suitable software to unlock their potential by executing tasks in parallel instead of sequentially.

Most current software was not written with parallel execution in mind. Parallel programming is still a science in itself.

Specialized hypervisor for HPC / realtime workloads:

• AlacrityVM

[edit] HPC Cluster toolkits

In large-scale deployments, you should make your life easier by using a toolkit that helps you build, manage and use your HPC cluster. Some examples:

• Project KUSU
• OSCAR - Open Source Cluster Application Resources
• Rocks

[edit] Red Hat HPC

In environments that need commercial support, you may want to look at Red Hat HPC Solution. It is based on Platform Lava and OCS.

[edit] Message Passing Interface (MPI)

The Message Passing Interface, or MPI, provides communication between processes that may run on different cluster nodes.

[edit] Storage

Network storage comes in two flavors: NAS and SAN. NAS storage provides file-based storage, while SAN provides block-based storage. NAS filesystems like NFS and CIFS can be shared with multiple nodes. SAN storage can not easily be shared.

[edit] NFS

Each node in the cluster needs access to the data. You can use NFS, but that normally does not scale very well. For relatively small environments, NFS appliances like a NetApp Filer may suit your needs.

• The Red Hat Cluster Suite NFS Cookbook - Setting up a Load­Balanced NFS Cluster with Failover Capabilities

[edit] GFS

• Best Practices with GFS

[edit] Platform Computing

Platform LSF (Load Sharing Facility) is a very popular workload manager in enterprise environments.

• Platform Computing - known for Platform LSF and Symphony
• Platform buys HP MPI - The Register

[edit] Platform Lava

Platform Lava is an open source entry-level workload scheduler designed to meet a wide range of workload scheduling needs for clusters up to 512-nodes. Lava is available via the HPC Community site and is also included as a component of Platform Cluster Manager (PCM).

[edit] Platform Open Cluster Stack

[edit] Rocks Clusters

[edit] Useful websites

• HPC Community
  • Project KUSU - Build, manage and use Linux HPC clusters
  • Platform Lava - Workload scheduler
• HPC at Dell
  • Automated BIOS and BMC configuration