Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters

Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters

Table of Contents
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters ........................................................................... 1
Exercise 1 Adding Workstation nodes ...........................................................................................................................2
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters

Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters

Objectives After completing this lab, you will be better able to:
 Create a node template for workstation nodes
 Run an Excel job on a workstation node
 Monitor the running job in Cluster Manager

Scenario In many large organizations, desktop computers sit idle for prolonged periods of
time – after hours, during breaks, during holidays.
Windows HPC 2008 R2 now provides organizations with the ability to leverage
1
the computing power in these workstations for the benefit of High
Performance Computing (HPC) jobs. The end result is that the HPC cluster can
grow dynamically to suit business needs without requiring an investment in
additional hardware.

Estimated Time to 45 Minutes

Complete This Lab

Computers used in this

Lab HPC-HN

HPC-CN01

HPC-CN02

HPC-CN03

HPC-Win7

The password for the Administrator account on all computers in this lab is:
Pa$$w0rd

Page 1 of 12
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters

Exercise 1
Adding Workstation nodes

Scenario
In this exercise you will add workstation nodes.
Tasks Detailed Steps
Complete the following a. To add Windows 7 workstations to the cluster, a new workstation node group
tasks on: must be created.
b. Launch Cluster Manager from the task bar:

HPC-HN
1. Start Cluster
Manager. Go to
Deployment To-Do
List.

c. Browse to “Deployment To-do list” section in the Configuration tab of Cluster

Manager.

d. Note the Deployment To-Do list from the console below. It provides a single
check list of all the activities to prepare the cluster as well as quick links to
common tasks.
e. Click on the “Create a node template” link.

Page 2 of 12
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters
Tasks Detailed Steps

2. Node Template a. A wizard leads the administrator through steps to create the node group.
Wizard b. Select the “Workstation node template” from the first screen of the wizard. Click
the Next button.

c. For simplicity, you can accept the “Default Workstation Template” name and click
“Next”.

Page 3 of 12
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters
Tasks Detailed Steps

d. Unlike compute nodes, workstation nodes are special because they are not
always available for HPC jobs. This wizard provides a number of configurable
options that determine the availability of the workstations in this group. The
window below allows an administrator to specify this “Availability Policy”.
e. Choose to “bring workstation nodes online and offline automatically”.
f. Click “Configure the Availability Policy” button to show the calendar.

g. The administrator can choose the option that best suits organizational needs or
policies without adversely affecting the workstation user:

Page 4 of 12
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters
Tasks Detailed Steps

h. Check the box “Only use workstation nodes if there has been no user input
detected for [] minutes”: when selected, if workstation is in an idle state for this
length of time or greater, it will start running jobs. (Any input from user, e.g.
mouse movement, will preempt the HPC job and control of the desktop will be
returned to workstation user immediately.)
i. Check the box “Only use workstation node if CPU ….” : If workstation CPU usage
falls below a threshold, workstation will start running jobs.
j. Another common option is to set a time of day policy. Non-business hours can
designated as times to run jobs. Conversely, some hours of the day can be
completely blocked out, even if the machine is idle. This setting can be done by
dragging the mouse pointer on the grid.
k. The slide below shows the time of day settings configured to specify that jobs
may run anytime except business hours: Monday - Friday 7a-7p.

Page 5 of 12
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters
Tasks Detailed Steps

l. For the purpose of this lab, we will leave not use the availability policy
configuration.
m. Press the Cancel button to close the “Configure Workstation Availability Policy”
dialog.
n. Now on the wizard, select “Bring workstation nodes online and offline
manually”, and press the Next button.

o. Press the Create button on the final slide of the Wizard.

3. Adding a Note: Behind the scenes, the HPC Pack was installed on a Windows 7 desktop. These
Workstation node to workstation nodes are already registered with the head node while installing the pcal
the cluster. on the workstation. They have been placed in an “Unapproved” state and cannot
receive jobs until approved by the administrator. They have not joined the cluster yet.

Page 6 of 12
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters
Tasks Detailed Steps
This step guards cluster integrity by preventing against rogue workstations and
workstations lacking required configuration from joining the cluster in a disorganized
or unauthorized manner.
a. Go to Node Management and you will find an unapproved Workstation node
under the filter By Group>>WorkstationNodes.

b. Assign the node template that we just created to this node by right clicking the
node and selecting the Assign Node Template option.

Page 7 of 12
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters
Tasks Detailed Steps

c. From the pop up dialog, select the node template that you created and press OK.

d. The node will be in transitional state for a few seconds, before moving to offline
state.

Page 8 of 12
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters
Tasks Detailed Steps
e. The next step is to bring this node online. Right click the node, from the menu,
select “Bring Online”. The node state will change to Online.
f. These steps add the workstation node to the cluster, and available for scheduling
jobs.
4. Putting workstation a. To create some activity on this node, we will use the Convertible Pricing
nodes to work workbook. Its shortcut is visible on the desktop.

b. Close HPC Cluster Manager

c. From the desktop, launch the Excel workbook named ConvertibleP… and click OK
in the pop up
d. From the ribbon menu, select the HPC Fire/Recollect tab. Click on the Reset
button. Enter the value for Workbook Save Location as \\hpc-
hn\share\temp.xlsm. Enter value for HPC Head Node as hpc-hn. Enter value for
Cores Requested as 2.

Page 9 of 12
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters
Tasks Detailed Steps

e. Scrolling to the right shows this workbook has three options. One of these is a
“Run Model on Workstations” button. Click this button. At this point we’re
utilizing the new HPC Services for Excel feature to run Excel-based jobs on the
cluster. The Excel UI will freeze for a few seconds while creating the SOA session.

5. Analyzing the job in a. Let’s open Cluster Manager to look at the Excel job. Here we can see that the job
cluster manager. is running.
b. From the task bar, launch HPC Cluster Manager
c. Switch to Job Management to show the Job List View

Page 10 of 12
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters
Tasks Detailed Steps

d. Pivot To nodes for the Jobs to view the nodes for this job.
e. This switches over to see which nodes are running the job. We can see that this is
the desktop node that we have just deployed and we can monitor it through the
heat map just like for normal compute nodes.
f. The main “take-away” should be a realization of how easy it is for an organization
to expand the capacity of a HPC cluster by utilizing CPU cycles from its idle
desktops.
g. Wait till the job finishes. You can monitor the job progress from the job
management view.
6. The completed a. Now the workbook user knows the Excel job is done. Re-launch Excel and click
workbook: using the “Get Results”. This completes the Fire and Recollect loop by retrieving the
Get Cluster Results queued results from the broker node.
tab

Page 11 of 12
Adding Workstation Nodes to HPC Clusters
Tasks Detailed Steps

b. If the Excel workbook is not already open, then from the desktop double click the
Excel Workbook again.
c. Scroll to the right.
d. Click the “Get Results” button
e. The workbook will receive the final results from the cluster
f. You can scroll left and right to give a complete view.

Page 12 of 12