ClusterPack Index of Tutorial Sections

of Gigabit Ethernet or Infiniband. The common components of a cluster are:
� Head Node - provides user access to the cluster. In smaller clusters, the
Head Node may also serve as a Management Server.
� Management Server - server that provides single point of management for
all system components in the cluster
� Management LAN/switch - usually an Ethernet network used to monitor
and control all the major system components. May also handle traffic to
the file server.
� Interconnect switch - provides high speed connectivity between Compute
Nodes. Used for message passing and remote memory access capabilities
for parallel applications.
� Storage - includes both local disk space on each Compute Node and
optionally an independent storage unit accessible to the Compute Nodes
(See NAS below).
� Cluster management software - ClusterPack for system administrators
and end-users.
� Management Processor (MP) - controls the system console, reset and
power management functions of a server.
� Console LAN - network for remote management of consoles (ex. using
the Management Processor LAN).
� Network Attached Storage (NAS) - attach directly to Ethernet networks,
providing easy installation, low maintenance, and high uptime.
Compute Nodes
Compute Nodes in a cluster are normal compute servers that provide system computing
resource and storage capability. A ClusterPack cluster is built with HP Integrity servers: 2way
or 4-way server platforms based on Intel Itanium 2-based processors and HP's zx1
chipset technologies.
The HP Integrity rx2600 server, powered by Intel Itanium 2-based processors, is the
industry's first dual-processor Itanium 2-based server. The rx2600 dramatically improves
price/performance for technical applications and gives customers a cost-effective yet
powerful entry into a technology with tremendous growth potential. Its 2U rack density is
ideal for clustering solutions.
HP's extensive Itanium 2-based systems experience and co-developer insights have resulted
in premium performance through the development of the HP Scalable Processor Chipset
zx1. Invented by HP, the HP zx1 chipset fully unleashes the power of Intel Itanium 2-based
processors by lowering memory latencies and increasing memory and I/O subsystem
scalability. With the HP zx1 chipset, HP Integrity servers and Itanium 2-based servers
achieve even better performance and memory expandability.
Interconnection Networks
An ClusterPack cluster is built with the industry standard Gigabit Ethernet. This
interconnect network is capable of transferring data packets between Compute Nodes for
both file serving and inter-node communication for applications. When applications benefit
from lower latency, HP's Infiniband can be configured into the cluster to provide lower