Scyld ClusterWare
Scyld ClusterWare™ is an HPC cluster management solution that is fully compatible with the Linux distributions RedHat Enterprise Linux and CentOS. It is designed to make the deployment and management of a Linux cluster as easy as the deployment and management of a single system. Scyld ClusterWare makes it possible to leverage the superior price/performance ratio of Linux on commodity hardware without the pain of having to individually manage a multitude of systems. Moreover Scyld Clusterware users can rely on the interoperability of all layers of the HPC software and hardware stack as for example the MPI layer, the Infiniband transport layer and the Infiniband HCA. Scyld ClusterWare™ is a fourth generation product architected by the father of Linux clustering Donald Becker.
A Scyld ClusterWare cluster consists of a master node and compute nodes. The master node is the central point of control for the entire cluster. Compute nodes appear as attached processor and memory resources. Scyld ClusterWare's architecture is based on three principles:
- Compute nodes are provisioned through a network boot process from the cluster's master node into local RAM. An Operating System installation to local disk is not required. Libraries and drivers are provided to compute nodes by the master node on-demand. Configuration and version inconsistencies in the cluster are avoided by design.
- With Scyld ClusterWare compute nodes run a lightweight operating environment. Only one system service, used for communication with the master node, is launched on each compute node. In contrast, compute nodes in most other cluster management architectures run general purpose, workstation oriented operating systems; an approach that introduces unnecessary overhead and security vulnerabilities.
- Scyld ClusterWare provides a unified process space across all nodes in the cluster. All processes in the cluster are visible and can be directly controlled from the master node. Remote execution services on compute nodes are not required. The Scyld ClusterWare cluster has the look-and-feel of an SMP system.
Scyld ClusterWare is compatible with RedHat Enterprise Linux and CentOS and has been a component of several Intel® Cluster Ready certified HPC stacks. Scyld ClusterWare is supported on systems with 64-bit processors from AMD® or Intel®.
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The certification of Scyld ClusterWare against Intel's Cluster Ready test suite assures our joint customers that their key HPC applications will be interoperable with ClusterWare. More users with less cluster expertise will be able to leverage the superior price/performance ratio of Intel based HPC clusters for their research and simulations.