Cluster Upgrades
New or existing customers often request additions to their current cluster in order to add additional capabilities or computing power. Many customers also request cluster software upgrades to bring their systems up to date with more modern distributions and utilities.
Cluster Hardware Upgrades
Your sales engineer will work with you to determine your expanded requirements based on the addition of your new hardware. Your network and high speed Interconnect switches may not have enough ports to accommodate the addition of the new nodes, and additional power connections may also be needed. If rack space is not available, your upgrade may include additional racks as well. The additional heat load caused by your additional hardware will be calculated and provided to you for facility review. These and other infrastructure upgrades necessary to accommodate your additional nodes will be included in your upgrade quote package.
Adding additional nodes of the same bit architecture (32 or 64 bit) to an Aspen cluster is easy. If your new nodes are identical to your current node configuration, a simple set of commands on your existing master or administrative node is all that is needed to add your new nodes. Aspen clusters are designed to support these easy additions on either our single image or disked clusters.
If the nodes are significantly different, a little more must be done. The motherboard, chassis, and even processors of your new nodes may have changed since you purchased your original cluster, so a newer or patched kernel might be necessary to utilize the newer hardware. Aspen will take a current image of a cluster node using our Aspen Utilities package. If we do not have remote access, we utilize a current image you take or our archived disaster recovery image for that cluster. Then we modify that node image to boot and function on your new hardware. Aspen tools are used to generate initrd or initramfs images that will successfully boot both the old and the new hardware. This is done to normalize the node image for future use. If your cluster is a single image cluster, your image must be modified to be compatible with the newer hardware.
This type of upgrade maintains compatibility with system libraries and utilities that are already installed on your current cluster and being used for your current codes, and ensures a smooth upgrade path.
If your new nodes are a different bit architecture than your older nodes, then much more must be done. We address that upgrade path in the Cluster Upgrade with 32/64 Bit Integration section.
If your cluster was built by another vendor, things become a bit more complex as well. We will require access to your system to take a current image as well as to check your current software configuration and compatibility against your new hardware. If remote access is not allowed, we can talk you through taking an image using our software, and transferring that image back to Aspen.
In some cases, additional software changes may be required to add your new nodes to your scheduler, extend your preferred authentication schema to allow the new nodes to be utilized in the cluster, configure monitoring and correction services, and adjust other cluster configurations. All of these changes can be accomplished by an Aspen engineer with remote access or on-site as the new nodes are installed.
Once your new nodes are installed and all software changes are accomplished, regression testing is performed to ensure new node functionality and compatibility with existing infrastructure.
Cluster Software Upgrades
Many customers have their cluster software upgraded so that they can utilize more modern kernels, distributions, and utilities. Perhaps you now need to run a new model that will not compile or operate correctly on your current software stack, or you wish some feature that is not available on your installed configuration. Existing customers sometimes request this upgrade at the same time they add new hardware to their systems, while new customers may wish to enjoy the flexibility and reliability of an Aspen tuned software stack on their existing hardware. Aspen supports upgrading cluster hardware purchased from other vendors. These upgrade is are handled on a case by case basis, and is documented in our Orphaned Cluster Support section.
