HP XC System Software Installation Guide Version 3.0
Table 3-1 HP XC Software Stack
DescriptionSoftware Product Name
HP MPI provides optimized libraries for message passing designed specifically to
make high-performance use of the system interconnect. HP MPI complies fully with
the MPI-1.2 standard. HP MPI also complies with the MPI-2 standard, with restrictions.
HP MPI
HP XC System Software provides the installation, configuration, administration, and
management tools to support HP XC systems on HP Cluster Platforms 3000, 4000,
and 6000.
HP XC System Software Version 3.0
HPC Linux provides Linux ABI (Application Binary Interface) compatibility, which
provides:
HPC Linux for High Performance Computing
• The ability to run binary serial codes from compatible Linux systems
• Access to community-developed software and to a large application catalog
LVS provides a system alias that enables user logins to be distributed across multiple
login nodes and single system sign-on for both users and administrators.
Linux Virtual Server (LVS)
The Load Sharing Facility with SLURM on XC (LSF-HPC with SLURM) is developed by
Platform Computing, Inc. that provides both direct job allocation and policy-scheduled
interactive and batch queue management on an HP XC system. LSF-HPC with SLURM
provides a rich set of policies for scheduling and prioritizing jobs based on
combinations of static and dynamic system attributes.
LSF-HPC with SLURM is especially intended for running MPI workloads on super
computers and other high performance computing (HPC) environments, such as HP
XC systems. It supports all major MPI parallel job launchers. It features topology-aware
scheduling and support for high-speed interconnects. It also allows special task-based
workload management policies (for example, enforcement of limits on individual
parallel tasks).
LSF-HPC is layered on top of the Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management
(
SLURM
) to provide high-level job scheduling services.
Standard LSF is used for workload management of any kind of batch job. It features
comprehensive workload management policies in addition to simple first-come,
first-serve scheduling (fairshare, preemption, backfill, advance reservation, service-level
agreement, and so on). Standard LSF is suited for jobs that do not have complex
parallel computational needs and is ideal for processing serial, single-process jobs.
Standard LSF is not integrated with SLURM.
LSF-HPC with SLURM on XC
or
Standard LSF
The MySQL database stores information about the HP XC system configuration.MySQL database
Nagios is a system and network monitoring application. It watches hosts and services
that you specify and alerts you when problems occur or are resolved. On the HP XC
system, Nagios is integrated with SuperMon for monitoring capabilities.
Nagios
The pdsh shell is a multithreaded remote shell that executes commands on multiple
remote hosts in parallel.
Parallel Distributed Shell (pdsh)
SLURM was developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Linux
Networks. SLURM is a resource manager for Linux clusters. It manages the key
resource on an HP XC system: the compute nodes.
SLURM
SuperMon is a highly scalable, high-speed cluster monitoring system. SuperMon
provides all required node statistics to the Nagios subsystem. System statistics are
tiered, aggregated, and stored in the HP XC database.
SuperMon
The syslog-ng logging tool improves upon traditional syslog functionality. It
supplies more flexibility to handle logs, adds better filters, and contains a better
forwarding mechanism.
syslog-ng
The SystemImager tool synchronizes the configuration of nodes across the system
using image propagation. This facilitates ease of installation of the initial software
and ease of upgrading software and configuration files.
SystemImager
See the Preface (at the beginning of this document) for links and pointers to more information about the open
source and third-party software components that are integrated into the XC core technology.
Kickstart Installation File
The ks.cfg Kickstart installation file is supplied on the HP XC System Software DVD. It contains default
values supplied by HP to reduce the number of answers you have to provide during the installation session.
The Kickstart file differs depending on your cluster platform architecture, and the appropriate version of the
file is included on your distribution media.
28 Installing Software on the Head Node