#007 High hopes, low expectations
It paid off! If it was only one day training, the third day should be the one.
There was lots of interesting stuff about HPC development on MS platform with MS tools. Migration from Unix to MS.
That was I was waiting for!
The guy from the German MS showed real life programming experience on the subject matter. Experience, not only on MS but other platforms, too.
If I think back it worth the time I spent in München.
(The end)
P.S. Now, it is time for a holiday
Thursday, June 21, 2007
HPCPAL München – Day 2
#006 Disaster
The morning session was good but nothing is said we cannot read in the papers (internet or documentation). The lab was as the first day, chaotic and hot.
I came here to see what MS has to offer on HPC and in the afternoon Intel guys took over. We were listening about Intel compilers, libraries, network card setup and other tools. If I think it over, the Intel par was OK.
Hopefully the last day will be better than the first two!
(To be continued…)
The morning session was good but nothing is said we cannot read in the papers (internet or documentation). The lab was as the first day, chaotic and hot.
I came here to see what MS has to offer on HPC and in the afternoon Intel guys took over. We were listening about Intel compilers, libraries, network card setup and other tools. If I think it over, the Intel par was OK.
Hopefully the last day will be better than the first two!
(To be continued…)
HPCPAL München – Day 1
#005 Should be impressed, but not
Not exactly München but Unterschleiβheim. It is a small and quiet town (village) between München and the München Airport.
Location superb! Training is in the hotel where we stay. There was one real problem! No free internet access?! We had to purchase internet access at the front desk of the hotel!
The agenda was:
· Introduction to High Performance Computing
· Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 Overview
· Intro to verticals using Compute Clusters
· Into to third party applications capable of running on Compute Clusters
· Topologies of Compute clusters
· Intro to Interconnects/networking
· Intro to storage technology for HPC implementations
· Installing and configuring Compute Clusters
· Managing Compute Clusters
As we were late on start the first four (4) bullets were not delivered.
The guys from MS wanted to impress us! They bought eight (8) clusters with them! Eight four (4) node blade systems! Nice, but it made us more problems than use.
The blades were not prepared on time. We could not effectively connect to them. There were not prepared drivers for the system. Big heat and noise produced by the blades. Etc.
It would be better to have a set of virtual machines to do the labs. Later on we got an implicit (never spoken out) answer why the labs were not on virtual machines. MS Virtual Server or Virtual PC does not support 64 bit guest OSs and MS does not use vmware Workstation or Server for their presentations. Logical, isn’t it?!
On the other side, the talks, the knowledge of the guys were superb. Tips and trick, what’s supported and what’s not (but working), what and how, etc. Hats down!
(To be continued…)
Not exactly München but Unterschleiβheim. It is a small and quiet town (village) between München and the München Airport.
Location superb! Training is in the hotel where we stay. There was one real problem! No free internet access?! We had to purchase internet access at the front desk of the hotel!
The agenda was:
· Introduction to High Performance Computing
· Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 Overview
· Intro to verticals using Compute Clusters
· Into to third party applications capable of running on Compute Clusters
· Topologies of Compute clusters
· Intro to Interconnects/networking
· Intro to storage technology for HPC implementations
· Installing and configuring Compute Clusters
· Managing Compute Clusters
As we were late on start the first four (4) bullets were not delivered.
The guys from MS wanted to impress us! They bought eight (8) clusters with them! Eight four (4) node blade systems! Nice, but it made us more problems than use.
The blades were not prepared on time. We could not effectively connect to them. There were not prepared drivers for the system. Big heat and noise produced by the blades. Etc.
It would be better to have a set of virtual machines to do the labs. Later on we got an implicit (never spoken out) answer why the labs were not on virtual machines. MS Virtual Server or Virtual PC does not support 64 bit guest OSs and MS does not use vmware Workstation or Server for their presentations. Logical, isn’t it?!
On the other side, the talks, the knowledge of the guys were superb. Tips and trick, what’s supported and what’s not (but working), what and how, etc. Hats down!
(To be continued…)
My first Windows HPC Cluster
#004 The virtual one
Last week I managed (had enough free time) to set up my first Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster 2003 Environment.
I endorse everybody thinking about building a HPC cluster on MS or non MS technology to try out the virtual approach.
First I installed a domain controller, than built the head node and installed two compute nodes on a single 64 bit machine with 4GB of RAM under Windows XP x64 and vmware workstation. To be exact, on my son’s game station.
For sure, it is not a high performance computer but still you can test every aspect of the platform. Installation, administration, management, application (OpenMP, MPI) development, parallel remote debugging, etc.
The installation was fun and went through smoothly when I figured out how to configure each NIC as I was configuring the most complex network topology. All the cluster nodes are with 3 NICs. One NIC is for public, one for private and one for the MPI network.
I was not using a DHCP server, so configured the NICs as follows.
Public network :
*192.168.0.X (255.555.555.0)
*Configured default gateway
*Configured DNS server
Management Network:
*10.0.0.X (255.555.555.0)
*No default gateway
*Configured DNS server (DC in my case)
MPI Network:
*10.0.0.X (255.555.555.0)
*No default gateway,
*Configured DNS server (DC in my case)
Last week I managed (had enough free time) to set up my first Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster 2003 Environment.
I endorse everybody thinking about building a HPC cluster on MS or non MS technology to try out the virtual approach.
First I installed a domain controller, than built the head node and installed two compute nodes on a single 64 bit machine with 4GB of RAM under Windows XP x64 and vmware workstation. To be exact, on my son’s game station.
For sure, it is not a high performance computer but still you can test every aspect of the platform. Installation, administration, management, application (OpenMP, MPI) development, parallel remote debugging, etc.
The installation was fun and went through smoothly when I figured out how to configure each NIC as I was configuring the most complex network topology. All the cluster nodes are with 3 NICs. One NIC is for public, one for private and one for the MPI network.
I was not using a DHCP server, so configured the NICs as follows.
Public network :
*192.168.0.X (255.555.555.0)
*Configured default gateway
*Configured DNS server
Management Network:
*10.0.0.X (255.555.555.0)
*No default gateway
*Configured DNS server (DC in my case)
MPI Network:
*10.0.0.X (255.555.555.0)
*No default gateway,
*Configured DNS server (DC in my case)
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Started the Campaign
#003 First CCS Presentation
I started my Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster 2003 campaign. I've made and entry level presentation about the mentioned technology on the Croatian main Microsoft event WinDays 2007.
It was an interesting experience. There was only one person in the around 60 people public who has a practical HPC knowledge.
Microsoft WinDays 2007
My next CCS event is Munich. HPC PAL. Be back on that when I am back!
I started my Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster 2003 campaign. I've made and entry level presentation about the mentioned technology on the Croatian main Microsoft event WinDays 2007.
It was an interesting experience. There was only one person in the around 60 people public who has a practical HPC knowledge.
Microsoft WinDays 2007
My next CCS event is Munich. HPC PAL. Be back on that when I am back!
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