- HPC Buyers Guide
Detailed Buyers Reference- Applications
- Budget
- Processors
- Interconnects
- Memory
- Distributions
- Cluster Management
- Warranty and Support
- Cluster Racking
- Cluster Logical Layout
- Master Node
- Storage
- Backup
- Nodes
- Power
- Cooling
- Schedulers
- Account Management
- Security
- Windows Integration
- Shipping and Delivery
- On-Site and Training
- Next Steps
HPC Applications- Processor
- System
- Network
- Storage
- Power
- Cooling
- Facilities Estimator
- Remote Management
- Green Computing
- Visualization
- Compilers
- Operating Systems
- Schedulers and Tools
- Virtualization
Commercial Software
What commercial software might you need?
Your application(s) may either be open source or commercially licensed. Mathematica, Gaussian, and Ansys CFX, for instance, are all commercial packages that require a system or site license to install and run. Other packages, such as VASP, require site licenses or agreements to operate. In some cases, your organization may already have a site license or purchasing agreement with the vendor who supplies your application(s). Some vendors require direct purchase, while Aspen can resell other applications to you.
Some open source packages are written and supported by companies who themselves can be contracted for support or technical help. In certain unusual cases where you are attempting to compute non-standard problem sets with the application, this type of support may be necessary to achieve optimal performance. Your Aspen sales engineer can help you determine what licenses you need for your application or if you require additional support resources.
Distributions
Some distributions, such as RedHat Enterprise Linux Server, or Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise, are commercially licensed distributions, and require licenses to be installed on your cluster. One or more of your applications may support only specific distributions, and only specific versions of that distribution. For instance, Ansys Release 11.0 on Opteron processors is not certified on RedHat Advance Server 5.x, which is the current enterprise Linux version RedHat sells. While the application may run on RHEL 5.2, Ansys has not yet certified the application on this version, and so will not support it if problems should occur. Carefully check your application requirements before selecting your distribution.
RedHat Enterprise Linux Server is installed and licensed on the master node(s) only, and your compute nodes are licensed as RedHat Enterprise Linux for HPC Compute Nodes. You must purchase a minimum of 4 nodes, but additional compute node licenses can be purchased incrementally. RedHat Enterprise Linux for HPC Compute Nodes requires identical nodes, and is licensed by the number of CPU sockets per node, either 2 per system, or 4 per system (for quad socket systems).
Novell SUSE Enterprise Linux requires that SUSE Enterprise Linux server be installed and licensed on your head nodes, then each compute node is licensed as a Novell HPC licensed node.
Compilers, Utilities, and Debuggers
Some applications have been built, perform best, or only compile, with specific commercial compilers, such as PGI, Intel, Pathscale, NAG, or Absoft. Sometimes applications can achieve considerable performance gains by using a commercial compiler versus GNU C, C++. and Fortran compilers. Applications may work well on one version of a compiler while not compiling with a newer or older version.
Your licensing model for any commercial compiler should match your planned usage pattern. Most compiler vendors offer single seat node-locked licenses, where only a single compilation task at any one time can be ran on one specific node, and multiple seat floating licenses, where many compilations can take place concurrently on one or multiple hosts. Multiple seat floating licenses can be considerably more expensive than single seat, but may be needed for your cluster due to your planned usage.
Compiler vendors can offer discounted pricing for specific customer types, such as academic users, or free for personal use licenses. Free for personal use licenses are almost never appropriate for a cluster installation. Your organization may have a site licensing agreement with a compiler vendor, or may have a current licensing server with floating licenses that your new cluster can access. Other vendors, such as PGI, offer a compiler license that is valid for a free trial period, 2 weeks in the case of PGI. After that trial period, any applications built with that license will stop working.
In almost all cases MPI implementations that will be used to build your application are built with your selected commercial compiler for optimum performance. Aspen can include any of these compilers with your cluster purchase, or utilize existing licenses you transfer to your cluster.
Intel offers the Math Kernel Library( MKL) as a commercial product. The MKL is a suite of highly tuned libraries for performance on scientific, engineering and financial applications that is especially effective on Intel platforms. Intel also offers the VTune™ Performance Analyzer, which can be used to help you speed up some applications run time on Intel processors.
The TotalView Technologies Multi-process debugger can be licensed for your cluster and used to debug both MPI and OpenMP processes. TotalView only supports specific MPI implementations, so be aware that this might limit your MPI selection.
Research your application requirements and what compilers, utilities, and debuggers you might need to purchase for your cluster by consulting user groups, talking to your software vendor, or speaking to your Aspen sales engineer.
Commercial MPIs
Commercial MPI implementations, such as Platform MPI (formerly Scali), HP MPI, or Intel MPI may provide additional performance for your code(s) in some cases, or be mandated by your application. Some commercial software packages are only ported to specific commercial MPI implementations, and do not work well, or at all, with open source alternatives such as Open MPI, MVAPICH2, MPICH-GM, or other freely available MPI implementations. The research you undertake for your application requirements will generally point out these limitations, or speak to your sales engineer about your applications MPI implementation requirements. Aspen can include any commercial MPI implementations needed with your cluster purchase, or transfer existing licenses.
Parallel File Systems
Commercial parallel file systems, such as GPFS (IBM), or a commercially supported release of GFS (RedHat) and its associated RedHat Cluster Suite require purchase and licensing. In the case of Lustre, the file system itself is open source, but you can purchase direct software service plans if your deployment is non-traditional or highly complex.
Commercial Backup Software
Aspen provides several commercial backup solutions by default, and can implement others based on your requirements. The Storix, Veritas Backup, and IBM Tivoli backup solutions require licensing, and normally employ a client-server model. One or more nodes function as backup servers, with other nodes as clients. As little or no data is kept on the compute nodes, it is not necessary to license each compute server as a backup client. Normally only the node supporting the data storage area for the cluster needs to have a client license.
