In This Issue
» Events
» Product/Solution Focus: Moab Hybrid Cluster
» What's New: Upgraded TORQUE with Server High Availability
» Software Updates and Releases
» Training
» Did You Know
» FAQs
» Contact Us
Events
Cluster Resources at SC'07
Michael A. Jackson, president of Cluster Resources, presented "What's In Store: How Organizations Cope as they Mature From Clusters to Adaptive Computing" to a standing-room-only crowd at SC07. A PDF file of the PowerPoint presentation is available here (note: PDF file is ~4mb).
Brainshare'08
Cluster Resources will be exhibiting at Novell's Brainshare 2008. Visit us at booth 623. March 16-21, Salt Lake City, Utah.
ISC'08
Cluster Resources will be attending and exhibiting at International Supercomputing 2008 in Dresden, Germany June 17-20; Visit us at booth C-15/16
Product/Solution Focus
Moab Hybrid Cluster: A Mixed Windows/Linux Cluster Solution
Moab Hybrid Windows/Linux Cluster solution, which uses Moab Cluster Suite to dynamically change a node's OS on the fly in order to meet workload needs, is now available.
As a meta-scheduler, Moab optimally determines when the OS mix should be modified based upon 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, diskfull and/or diskless provisioning or virtualization (i.e., via Hyper-V within Windows Server 2008, VMware, or Xen).
Read more about Moab Hybrid Cluster here.
What's New
TORQUE: Server High Availability
The option of running TORQUE in a redundant or high availability mode has been implemented. This means that there can be multiple instances of the server running and waiting to take over processing in the event that the server currently running fails.
Two server host machines can be running pbs_server at the same time. The two servers have their torque/server_priv directory mounted on a shared NFS file system. The pbs_server's need to be started with the --ha command line option that will allow two servers to be running at the same time. Only the first server to start will complete the full startup. The second server to start will block very early in the startup when it tries to lock the file torque/server_priv/server.lock. When the second server cannot obtain the lock, it will spin in a loop and sleep waiting for the lock to clear. The sleep time between checks of the lock file is one second.
To learn more about server high availability, go here.
To download the new version of TORQUE go here.
Software Updates and Releases
Moab 5.1.0, Patch 9. Released to address an issue in the core scheduling. It is now available to download here.
Moab Workload Manager 5.2 has been released, bringing enhancements in efficiency and flexibility to all levels of HPC! It is available for download here. For more information read the press release.
NOTE: Moab 5.1.0-p8 contains an issue that can cause Moab to believe that its license file has expired. When Moab detects what it believes is an expired license file, it gracefully shuts down and stops scheduling. Running jobs continue to execute, but no new jobs are started. If Moab does shut down due to this issue, it can be restarted in the normal manner and will continue to operate properly.
This issue only affects Moab 5.1.0-p8 and appears to only affect a subset of users who are running Moab with Moab Cluster Manager and who have license files that are several months old.
Moab 5.1.0-p9 was released last month and contains a fix for this issue. We recommend that any site running Moab 5.1.0-p8 in conjunction with Moab Cluster Manager upgrade to Moab 5.1.0-p9 or Moab 5.2 at their convenience. Both upgrades should be a drop-in replacements with no config changes required.
Moab Cluster Builder™ (formerly code named Escalante) - the full HPC-stack deployment solution based on Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 - is in final beta with a targeted release date of January 31, 2008. For more information go here.
Gold Allocation Manager 2.1.5 has been released and has added indexes to tables which increase database performance up to ten times. These latest improvements come as a result of help from Karl Lindekugel of Arizona State University and Brock Palen of Louisiana State University.
No need to upgrade to take advantage of Gold's increased database performance. Indexes can simply be added to an existing Gold database to achieve the full benefit. Instructions for adding indexes can be found in the change log here or version 2.1.5 can be downloaded here
Training
Monthly FREE Moab Online Training is available for Moab Evaluators!
These live, interactive demonstrations show how easy it is to evaluate Moab and go into detail about the tools we provide that make the evaluation simple and effective.
The tutorial covers How to Use Moab, as well as the following: -Moab Architecture -Installation -Diagnostics and Troubleshooting -Admin tools -End User tools -Testing Modes
The next demonstrations are scheduled for:
Part 1: Clusters
U.S Time Zones
Wed, Jan. 30, 2008 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST
EMEA Time Zones
Thu., Jan. 31, 2008 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM GMT
Part 2: Grid
U.S Time Zones
Wed, Feb 6., 2008 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST
If this time does not work for you, please contact us at eval-support@clusterresources.com to schedule a demonstration outside the current times. More times and sessions focused on Moab Grid Suite will follow.
To register for one of the time slots, please go here.
Did You Know: Online Demonstrations Available
Moab Cluster Manager® - Admin Interface Demo
Moab Cluster Manager is a task-based cluster management interface, monitor and reporting tool for Moab Workload Manager®. Moab Cluster Manager reduces administration costs by enabling command complex management tasks such as cluster status, diagnostics, data staging, report generation and job submission to be done faster and easier. Now you can view the functionality of Moab Cluster Manager though a screenshot Flash demonstration. This demonstration is using a 256 node cluster and demonstrates features such as job submission, reservation creation, and statistics reporting.
View the Online Demonstration
To see Moab Cluster Manager's capabilities beyond this online demonstration, it is available to install and evaluate on your own cluster or workstation without any limitations. Download the Cluster Manager evaluation from the Moab evaluation page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cluster Resources has posted answers to frequently asked technical questions here.
Cluster Resources has a Moab Evaluation Product FAQ page located here.
Cluster Resources offers FREE evaluation copies of Moab Grid Suite here. This allows current Moab customers and all others to evaluate Moab's grid and cluster functionality.
During the evaluation period, contact eval-support@clusterresources.com for free evaluation support.
For more information on Moab Grid Suite, go here.
Contact Us
Please send your comments and questions about products, product feedback, tech support, consulting, or custom development to info@adaptivecomputing.com or call us at +1 801-717-3700.
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