supercomputing. simplified.

INTRODUCING WINDOWS HPC SERVER 2008 R2 SP2

Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 provides a comprehensive HPC platform through the unique combination of scalability, ease of use, and the ability to integrate with existing technology investments. Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 integrates easily with existing IT infrastructure to enable end users to access HPC resources using familiar Windows-based technologies. Out-of-the-box, worldclass performance and scalability enable organizations of all sizes to rapidly deploy solutions that can run both traditional and data intensive HPC applications. Integration with Windows Azure allows you to deploy within your enterprise and burst to Azure for additional resources. The solution includes a rich ecosystem of SI, ISV, and OEM partners to ensure that customers have access to the applications of their choice and the resources required to successfully run them. Service pack 2 include several new features including: the ability to add new Windows Azure instances using the new VM role, support for MPI in Windows Azure, job scheduling policies for lend/borrow and over and under subscription of resources, multidomain support for workstation nodes, a web-based portal for job submission and management, support for LINQ to HPC, and smart card authentication. Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 provides a comprehensive set of deployment, administration, and monitoring tools that are easy to deploy, manage, and use with your existing infrastructure. Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 drives broader adoption of HPC by allowing end users to experience HPC applications through familiar Windows technologies and tools. A wide range of industry-leading software vendors have designed their applications to work with Windows HPC Server so that users can submit and monitor jobs without having to learn new or complex user interfaces. LINQ to HPC, provides support for data intensive applications. It includes a new runtime that schedules, executes, and manages distributed, data-parallel jobs. It also extends LINQ to make it easy to develop distributed, scale-out data-centric applications through a high level of abstraction similar to database queries. Programmers can now use thousands of servers, each of them with multiple processors or cores, to process unstructured data. Using LINQ to HPC, this can all be done without the need to manage the complexity of concurrent programming, networking or I/O bottlenecks. Developing parallel programs requires integrated development environments along with support for distributed computing standards. Visual Studio 2010 provides a comprehensive parallel and cluster programming environment for Windows HPC Server 2008 R2, including a native parallel debugger for developing and troubleshooting parallel development of HPC applications (MPI, SOA or Parametric Sweep). In addition to supporting OpenMP, MPICH2, and Web Services, Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 also supports numerous third-party numerical library providers, performance optimizers, and compilers.

PLATFORM FOR MULTIPLE APPLICATION TYPES

Microsoft HPC Pack 2008 R2, part of Windows HPC Server includes runtimes, APIs, and a range of job scheduling policies that enable multiple types of HPC applications to be developed, deployed, and managed through a single unified product. These include: MPI-based applications using Microsofts own MS-MPI (or 3rd party MPI) libraries and runtimes as well as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based applications Long running batch or low-latency interactive applications Conveniently parallel applications as well as applications that require extensive inter-node communication and synchronization Excel Workbooks and Excel User-defined functions (UDFs)

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100s of commercial ISV packaged applications and open source codes optimized for Window HPC Server Windows HPC Server includes wizards, tools, built-in management consoles, and a To Do List (Figure 1) to simplify the provisioning of compute nodes. Key capabilities include:

DATA INTENSE APPLICATIONS

LINQ to HPC provides support for data intense applications. Windows HPC Server can now create and run applications that process large amounts of unstructured data on a cluster of commodity servers. LINQ to HPC reduces network bandwidth consumption and improves performance by minimizing the need to transfer data across the network. Integration with the Windows HPC Server management tools allows data intensive jobs to be viewed, inspected, modified, and monitored using the HPC Cluster manager. Developers can implement LINQ to HPC applications in any .NET Language using Microsoft Visual Studio. LINQ to HPC is currently in beta, available as a seperate download, and requires that SP2 be applied first.

ENHANCED PRODUCTIVITY
A new feature in Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 also makes it easy for end users to easily submit jobs, monitor progress, view results, and troubleshoot their jobs on Windows HPC clusters through a web portal. Administrators can customize the information and user options they present to different users for different types of jobs. Additionally, ISVs and SIs can customize the job portal to include application-specific information, input (parameters, environment variables etc.), and workflow controls.

Rapid deployment of compute nodes in parallel by leveraging the Windows Deployment Service (WDS) transport using the Windows Imaging Format (WIM) file and multiband multicast A graphical wizard thats integrated into the Administration Console to build consistent compute node images that can be created, modified, and deployed across the cluster The ability to boot nodes over the network using an iSCSI connection to enable diskless compute nodes

WINDOWS AZURE INTEGRATION

While Windows Azure is well suited for running a wide variety of applications, it is particularly well suited to running HPC applications for two reasons: (i) scalable HPC applications can effectively use the additional computational resources that Windows Azure offers, and (ii) HPC applications exhibit a spiky behavior (i.e., their compute needs can change significantly over small intervals of time). Azures pay-for-only-what-you-use model allows you to maintain an HPC infrastructure that meets your typical demands while relying on Azure to address periods of peak computational needs. Many HPC applications that run within on-premise clusters

SCALABLE PERFORMANCE
Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 is built on proven Windows Server 2008 R2 x64-bit technology. Breaking the PFLOPS barrier on the TSUBAME 2.0 system, it delivers world class performance and scalability on various ISV (such as ANSYS FLUENT and LSTC LS-DYNA) and open source applications. Also, it can efficiently deploy and manage clusters of more than 1,000 Windows Servers and includes scalable management tools that help systems administrators proactively monitor system health and maintain system stability. Failover capabilities are provided by interoperability with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2.

RAPID, SCALABLE DEPLOYMENT

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can now be packaged with a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) and then uploaded to Windows Azure, where they can run in the virtual machine (VM) role. The HPC cluster manager includes a graphical wizard to (i) import the VHD to HPC Server, (ii) validate the VHD, and then (iii) upload the VHD to Azure. This support extends to updating previously loaded VHDs with newer versions. Windows HPC Server support for VM roles is seamless for monitoring and management, so the Heatmap in the HPC Cluster Manager can be used to monitor Azure nodes running HPC Jobs in VM roles, just like worker roles. With SP2, you can remote desktop into the HPC Azure nodes running HPC VMs, just like on-premise compute nodes. With Service Pack 2, MPI jobs can now run in or burst out to Windows Azure, whereas in the previous version bursting worked only for SOA-based and Parametric-sweep-based jobs.

REPORTING
Built on Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows HPC Server includes scalable management, monitoring, trouble shooting and reporting tools built using a familiar System Center interface.

Management
Clusters can be managed graphically with the Administration console, as well as programmatically though command-line interfaces, PowerShell, or scripting languages such as PERL. Larger clusters can be partitioned into node groups for manageability and matching jobs to server types. Locationbased node grouping allows administrators to view, categorize and batch operations on compute nodes based on their locations.

Monitoring
The heat map (Figure 2) provides a real-time, at-a-glance view of the entire clusters status.

WORKSTATION NODE INTEGRATION

Windows HPC Server also supports running HPC compute jobs on Windows 7 workstations, within the domain or trusted, extending the compute capacity of existing clusters by creating desktop compute clouds without buying additional server hardware.

Job Scheduler
A multi-core job scheduler allows for scheduling by core, socket or server, and addresses a variety of application types. Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 offers a range of scheduling policies: Preemption; Priority; Grow and Shrink; Backfill, Exclusive, and Service Balanced Scheduling; Lend/Borrow and Over/Under subscription. The Job Scheduler offers multiple interfaces for submitting jobs, including GUI, Command Line, PowerShell 2.0, COM, .NET and Open Grid Forums HPC Basic Profile Web Services Interface. Also included is support for prepare and release tasks that run before and after a job to prepare and cleanup nodes. A new user interface and API is available for viewing and reporting job progress.

MONITORING, ADMINISTRATION, DIAGNOSTICS AND

Enhancements in the latest release include the ability to customize the heat map to monitor up to three node-level metrics as well the ability to color-code the metrics for easy visualization. A new user interface and API is provided to track progress of jobs.

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Diagnostics and Reporting
Built-in diagnostic tools allow administrators to quickly identify and diagnose hardware, software, or network problems across the cluster. The latest release includes an extensive diagnostic framework that allows the addition of custom developed diagnostic tests as well as the ability to change diagnostic parameters at runtime. Additional capabilities such as automating routine, redundant tasks, and intelligent reporting and monitoring are possible through the use of System Center Operations Manager 2007. An extensible reporting infrastructure lets administrators capture and report on custom error messages, status messages and usage data. The data is stored in a SQL Server database and can be viewed with SQL Server Reporting services or Excel (Figure 3). Finalization hooks enabling developers to add logic to perform cleanup before a service exits. A cluster SOA debugger and cluster SOA profiler for building high performing, robust HPC SOA applications. An updated HPC Software Development Kit (SDK) with sample code that enables developers to more easily write Java-based client applications that communicate with .NET services while benefiting from the same level of functionality provided with clients based on the .NET Framework and WCF.

MPI, NETWORKING AND HIGHSPEED INTERCONNECTS

Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 significantly reduces the complexity of deploying multiple networks across a cluster by providing a networking wizard, diagnostics tools and a simplified way of performing network driver management. Functionality and enhancements include: Support for new networking optionsincluding RDMA over Ethernet (iWARP) from Intel and RDMA over Infiniband quad data rate (40 Gbps) hardware. Optimization of shared memory implementations for new Intel Nehalem-based processors. MPI debugging capabilities through the integration of Visual Studio 2010. A pushbutton optimization wizard for High Performance LINPACK.

BUSINESS CRITICAL SERVICE ORIENTED ARCHITECTURES (SOA) APPLICATIONS

Windows HPC Server supports SOA-based applications built using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). This includes enhancements for building business-critical SOA applications, such as: A new service-balanced job scheduling policy optimized for SOA and other dynamic workloads. A new fire-and-recollect programming model to implement re-attachable sessions by decoupling requests and responses as well as durable sessions, where the SOA runtime persist requests and their corresponding responses on behalf of clients so that requests do not have to be reissued even if clients or brokers fail.

ACCELERATING THE PERFORMANCE OF EXCEL 2010

Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 enables organizations to use HPC clusters to reduce calculation times for Excel workbooks by one or more orders of magnitude, with near linear scaling with additional cores. User-defined functions (UDFs) are a mechanism for extending Excel, enabling functions that are contained in Excel extension libraries (XLLs) to be called from spreadsheet cells like any standard Excel function. Excel 2010 extends this model to the HPC cluster by enabling UDFs to be calculated on an HPC cluster by one or more compute nodes, resulting in significantly better overall performance.

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Running Excel Workbooks on an HPC Cluster
Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 supports running Excel 2010 instances on the compute nodes of an HPC cluster, so that multiple long-running and iterative workbooks can be calculated in parallel to perform better. Support for running Excel workbooks on a cluster also includes features designed to run without user interaction, providing a robust platform for calculating unattended Excel models (Figure 4).

WINDOWS HPC SERVER 2008 R2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

The minimum system hardware requirements are similar to the hardware requirements for Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 supports up to 128 gigabytes (GB) of RAM. Supported processors include AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, AMD Phenom, Intel Pentium with Intel EM64T, Intel Core 2 Duo with Intel EM64T, and Intel Xeon with Intel EM64T processors. CPU Requirement: x64 architecture computer with AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, AMD Phenom, Intel Pentium with Intel EM64T, Intel Core 2 Duo with Intel EM64T, and Intel Xeon with Intel EM64T processors Operating System Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Support: Edition and Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition support up to four processors per server. Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition supports up to eight processors per server. Minimum RAM: 512 MB Maximum RAM: 128 GB Minimum Disk Space 50 GB for Setup: Disk Volumes: A single system volume is required for the head and compute nodes. Redundant array of independent disks (RAID) is supported but not required. The system volume must be MBR. Additional volumes can be MBR or GPT. Network Interface At least one network interface card Cards: (NIC) is required on the head node and each of the compute nodes. If a private network is used, the head node requires at least two NICs, and compute nodes require at least one NIC. Each node may also require a high-speed NIC for an application network. All nodes must have the same network hardware.