Moab Adaptive HPC Suite™
Administrator's Guide

The Moab Adaptive HPC Suite uses Moab Cluster Suite® to dynamically change a node’s OS to meet workload needs. As a meta-scheduler, Moab optimally determines when the OS mix should be modified based on defined policies and service level agreements as well as current and projected workload. When the specified conditions are met, Moab triggers the OS change using a site’s preferred OS-modification technology, such as dual boot or provisioning.

The Moab Adaptive HPC Suite can be applied to both new and existing clusters to help yield maximum hardware utilization and ROI. The hybrid cluster model also consolidates administration and centralizes job submission across both platforms. Administrators can easily manage the policies and workload for both OS environments—Linux and Windows—from Moab’s unified console. Moab can also make the dual-OS nature of the cluster transparent to end-users by applying application and workload information that ensures jobs run on the correct OS without the user needing to specify it. Moab can manipulate, grow, and shrink allocated resources to meet service level targets.

Administrative Topics

• 1.0 Deploying the Operating Systems
  • 1.1 Installing and Configuring Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008
    • 1.1.1 Automating the Home Directory and SSH Key Creation
    • 1.1.2 Installing the MSMHPC Services
    • 1.1.3 Reinstalling the HPC Pack
  • 1.2 Configuring Linux
    • 1.2.1 Configuring CentOS
    • 1.2.2 Configuring SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)
  • 1.3 Installing MSMHPC Tools
  • 1.4 Deploying Compute Nodes
  • 1.5 Installing TORQUE
  • 1.6 Test Your Configuration
  • 1.7 Configuring SSL for Adaptive HPC
    • 1.7.1 Windows Head Node Setup
    • 1.7.2 Linux Head Node Setup
    • 1.7.3 Troubleshooting
• 2.0 Preparing the Linux Head Node
  • 2.1 Installing Moab
  • 2.2 Configuring Samba
• 3.0 PXE Booting
  • 3.1 Configuring a DHCP Server
  • 3.2 TFTP Server and PXE Booting
    • 3.2.1 Switching Operating Systems with xCAT
• 4.0 Moab Configuration
  • 4.1 Scheduler Configuration
  • 4.2 On-Demand Provisioning
  • 4.3 Provisioning & Load Balancing
    • 4.3.1 Switching from Dual to Single OS Provisioning
    • 4.3.2 Configuring Multiple Operating Systems in Windows
  • 4.4 Resource Manager Configuration
    • 4.4.1 Linux Resource Manager Configuration
      • 4.4.1.1 TORQUE Setup
      • 4.4.1.2 Sun Grid Engine Configuration
    • 4.4.2 Windows Resource Manager Configuration
• 5.0 Submitting Jobs through Moab
• 5.1 Caching the User Credentials
• 5.2 Submitting Jobs with msub
• 5.3 Verifying the Job has Migrated to HPC 2008 R2
• 5.4 Verifying the Job Runs Correctly
• 6.0 Configuring Moab for Dual-Boot Systems
• 6.1 Node Setup
• 7.0 Creating SSH Shared Keys for Cluster Users
• 8.0 Centralizing Authentication with Active Directory
• 9.0 Reservation Tracking
• Appendix A: GRUB Dual-Boot OS Switching
• Appendix B: Troubleshooting Common Problems