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Running Linpack on Win Compute Cluster
Continued from page: 1
Anindya Roy
Friday, November 02, 2007
Configuring the Cluster
This process involves three major tasks:
- Configuring the network topology
- Installing and adding nodes
- User management
Since, ours is a test cluster we won't give much emphasis to the users
management part, rather we will focus on configuring the network and nodes now.
Configure the Network
To configure the cluster, go to Program files>Microsoft Compute Cluster
Pack> and start the Compute Cluster Administrator. Under the 'To do List' pane,
select the 'Configure Compute Cluster Topology' option.
This will open up the wizard. From the drop down menu select 'Compute Nodes
Isolated on Private Network' and proceed to the next step.
Further the wizard will ask you to select the network cards which are
connected to the public and private network one by one. Select the right option
and then click on Finish. After this, disable the firewall, which is recommended
considering the fact that ours is a test setup.
For this, click on the 'Manage Windows Firewall Settings' option, which will
open up the standard Firewall manager window and disable the firewall. Remember,
if you are building it on a production network then chose your security policy
options accordingly.
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| This is the place where you
configure network topology of your cluster. The next likely option will be
'Compute node loaded' |
Installing Nodes
Click on the 'Install RIS' link and install Remote Deployment Server. Then
click on the 'Manage Image' option. This will open up a wizard. In the next
step, select 'Add a new Image' option and click on Finish. This will start the
standard RIS wizard and will then ask for the folder where it will create the
RIS root directory.
Make sure that for this folder you select a partition other than the system
partition; else you won't be able to install Windows 2003. Provide a name to the
folder such as RemoteInstall and then proceed. Further the wizard will ask you
about the location of the CD, whose Image you have to create for remote
installation. Place the Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster edition CD in the CD
drive of the Head node and specify the drive letter in this wizard. Click on
'Next' and proceed till the wizard gets completed and the image building process
starts. This process will take around 10 to 15 minutes for completion.
Once it is done, your RIS is ready and now you can turn on and boot all your
Compute nodes over the network to start an un-attended remote installation. This
process is quite simple, so we won't discuss its details.
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| In the 'Compute Cluster
Administrator' window, you can check the status of the nodes. To check the
exact resource utilization of any node, use the System Monitor option
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Adding Nodes
Till now, only the OS has been installed on the Compute nodes. To make the
whole setup work properly, you have to install a few more components. For this,
go to each node one by one, uncheck 'create the machine a Head node' option and
run the Compute Cluster Pack on them. This will install all the required
components, though in some cases it might also require to download some upgrades
etc from Internet during installation. So make sure that you have the connection
handy if required.
Once this is done, you can now add nodes to the Head node. For this first
join all nodes to the Cluster domain and reboot them. Now go to the Head node
and open Compute Cluster Administrator. From the 'To do list' select the Add
Node option, which will open up a wizard. It will ask the kind of employment
that you want,
select 'Manual Deployment' and then click on 'Next'. In the next step, type in
the FQDN of all the nodes one by one and add them by using the Add button. Then
close the wizard by clicking on Finish. The FQDN will be something like Node00x,
where x is the number of the node.
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| In MSCCS you can execute a task
directly through the command prompt by running the mpiexec command. To
submit a task you've to go through the Task Properties window |
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