Windows HPC Server 2008 Reviewers Guide
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Windows HPC Server 2008 offers an affordable, easy-to-use, and scalable HPC solution. Because it provides a comprehensive platform built on Windows Server 2008, Windows HPC Server 2008 helps to simplify deployment, management, and integration with existing infrastructure, thus improving the productivity of system administrators, application developers, and end users.
The "Windows HPC Server 2008 Reviewers Guide" begins with a primer on Windows HPC Server 2008. The guide then goes on to describe several new features; for example, Node Templates help to simplify and speed deployment of compute nodes using standard Windows Server 2008 deployment technologies. Additional compute nodes in Windows HPC Server 2008 can be added to a cluster by simply connecting computers to the network. Learn how integration with Active Directory helps enable role-based security for IT administrators and users, and the use of the System Center user interface model provides a familiar administrative and scheduling interface. The guide also covers the Windows HPC Server 2008 Job Scheduler, which supports heterogeneous clusters and enables the use of service-oriented architecture (SOA) applications on the cluster.
The guide then delves into the Microsoft Message Passing Interface (MS-MPI) in Windows HPC Server 2008. The MS-MPI is a version of the Argonne National Labs Open Source MPICH2 implementation that is widely used by existing HPC clusters. MS-MPI is compatible with the MPICH2 Reference Implementation and includes a full-featured API with more than 160 function calls.
Next, the guide provides basic conceptual information and general procedures for installing a high-performance computing cluster using Windows HPC Server 2008. Beginning with a deployment checklist, the guide provides the steps for deploying and configuring the head node. It then goes on to describe how to add compute nodes to the cluster and run diagnostic tests.
