Microsoft HPC Leor Dilmanian David Wollenhaupt Nurzhan Kirbassov c_technology

Outline What is Microsoft HPC? What's new in HPC? Administrative Console Deployment Security Building SOA Parallel Programming with.NET HPC in the news Conclusion

What is Microsoft HPC? What's new in HPC? Administrative Console Deployment Security Embarrassingly Parallel Problems Building SOA Parallel Programming with.NET Conclusion

What is Microsoft HPC? Head node: – Single point of management, deployment, and job scheduling for the cluster Utilizes existing corporate active directory infrastructure to accomplish security and account management – Implementation of LDAP directory services by Microsoft for use with Windows – Provides central authentication and authorization Currently in the beta stage w/ free evaluation.

What's new in HPC? Administrative tools – New administrator console, integrate all aspects of cluster management. – Configuring network topology, user configuration, monitoring jobs, health of cluster – “Node Templates Leverage” – “Windows Deployment Services” - simplify compute node deployment. – Diagnostics testing, reporting – Job Scheduling Features

What's new in HPC? End User Tools: – “PowerShell” - Scheduling and managing jobs, 130 command line tools to automate system administrative tasks – “Job Manager” interface supports parametric commands – Job view filtering

Administrative Console Used for deployment & includes: – Configurations – Node management – Job Management – Change History – Diagnostics – Reports – & more

Deployment Outline Select Topology Install MS Server 2008 on Head Node Install HPCP on Head Configure Head Deploy Compute Nodes Add users, groups and administrators Add node groups Diagnostics Tests Job Template Monitoring begins Job creation Job submission Troubleshooting Add node groups Diagnostics Tests Job Template Monitoring begins Job creation Job submission Troubleshooting

Cluster Topology Network topology affect application performance. Multiple interconnects & solutions, varying in price, latency, and performance are provided. Application is very loosely coupled. – Select a Topology – Cisco: Solution 5 Public network connects to all nodes, all traffic (MPI, Private and Public) over Ethernet (10/100/1000)‏

Installation on Head Install x64 Windows Server 2008 on Head – DVD or Network Location – Join Appropriate Active Directory Domain – Verify Network Connections – Stop Server Roles

Configure Head Consider Selected Topology – Affects usability, performance, access, and application performance. – Physically set up network interfaces according to topology – Configure head node to recognize physical topology (Network Services like DHCP, RRAS, NAT & Firewall)‏ – Compute node naming series – Deploy O.S. Images to compute nodes – Images may be configured with additional drivers

Configure Head Node Templates Install HPC Pack 2008, applications, drivers, security patches and configurations on nodes Different O.S./drivers/patches/etc. Combinations. Bring Head Online

Deploy Compute Node PXE service on compute cluster connects to CcpManagement service on Head node Templates are assigned to compute clusters Status of nodes change as templates gets installed from Head Finally, the head node places compute node "online". Same console used to re-image then node. – (offline -> re-image -> provisioning -> take online)‏ Compute nodes can be deployed manually Centralized diagnosis: reverting

User and Node Groups Add users, groups and administrators – Security Policy Add node groups – Apply Management actions – Default: Head, compute & router nodes – Router nodes dispatch services to compute nodes

Diagnostics Tests Test the following – services running – service health – active directory – node-to-node connectivity – name resolution – memory bandwidth

Job Templates Not to be confused with Node Templates Administrators easily manage submitted jobs – Defaults and constraints on job terms – Job to node assignment – Job terms to template assignment – Job template security policy: Which users can add what to each template?

Monitoring Cluster Detect deviance from normal state/performance – Illustrate behavior of some subset of nodes through "heatmap" – Viewing details of a node – Performance charts, event viewers – Change history – Auditing operations (& sub-operations)‏ – Logging

Job Scheduling Improved, with new functionality – improved resource allocation, performance – efficient scheduling of jobs on large clusters of multi-core nodes. – SOA communications and workloads – Resource matching – Access Control List with templates – Multilevel Computing Resource Allocation - optimal placement of memory intensive jobs, less contention – Grow and Shrink Job Scheduling (resource allocation)‏ – node and socket level allocation

Job Creation and Submission Done in administrator or user console Microsoft: Job = Term(resources) + Tasks(work)‏ Sweep Task: Start-Index, End-Index, Increment Job Filters: View Jobs by certain criteria

Security Active directory domain services (AD DS)‏ – Role based security for job submission and cluster administration – Credentials encrypted and stored with jobs, deleted upon completion – Jobs access network resources using credentials – AD DS used to apply and audit security policies Encryption, Authentication used for end to end security – MPI traffic not secure

Misc: Building SOA Service Oriented Application/Architecture Prerequisites: – Visual Studio 2005 or higher – Microsoft SDK 3.0 – Compute Cluster Pack v2 SDK Building – create service – deploy to cluster – create client Example in Getting Started Guide

Parallel Programming with.NET Traditionally, master-slave code written in C or Fortran. Use MPI or PVM library for interprocess communication between master and worker. Programmer Concerns: – message passing, data management, distributed process management & security, parallel job scheduler

Parallel Programming with.NET.NET object oriented approach – Worker is an instantiated object or web service – Master: standard web interface or desktop application, requests objects seamlessly over network. –.Net Cluster Architecture find best resource, verifies credentials

HPC in the news Actuary's challenge Oil and Gas Industry Simplification of IT Infrastructure AIDS research Cancer research Interactive digital media & rendering farms Data visualization

Summary or Conclusion Centralized cluster administration Highly productive, feature rich set of tools Suitable for Embarrassingly Parallel Problems Improved job scheduling Turnkey solution.Net – Streamlined development – Elimination of programmer concerns

References [1]David Lifka, Lucia Walle, Veaceslav Zaloj, and John Zollweg. Increasing the Accessibility of Parallel Processing with Microsoft.NET. HPC Cluster Environment, 2007, Microsoft Corporation. [2] Delivering a Service-Oriented Programming Model and Runtime System for Interactive HPC Applications. 2007, Microsoft Corporation. [3]Depner, A. Getting Started Guide for Windows HPC Server 2008 Beta , Microsoft Corporation. [4] s517/ns224/ns500/net_implementation_white_paper0900 aecd804cbe16.html s517/ns224/ns500/net_implementation_white_paper0900 aecd804cbe16.html [5]