SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 11 — Bright Computing, a leading provider of management solutions for clusters and clouds, announced that the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC-3) uses Bright Cluster Manager for configuring, installing, monitoring, and managing their cluster. The newly built Austrian supercomputer is known for its efficient power utility, cooling the servers in a bath of mineral oil.
The VSC-3 cluster is the initiative of a consortium of Austrian universities. The design of the new high performance computing data center is particularly interesting since it uses mineral oil for server cooling, a new energy efficient cooling mechanism developed by Green Revolution Cooling. Mineral oil is an insulator and can be used in close contact with electronics. The servers are mounted in a bath of mineral oil that absorbs the heat generated by the electronics. The oil is then pumped away to cool before being recirculated to start the cooling process over again. This method is far more energy efficient than air-cooled systems used in most data centers.
Installation and configuration of the 2000 node cluster was done using software from Bright Computing. Bright Cluster Manager automates the configuration and installation process and provides a user friendly, graphical interface for systems operators to monitor the entire cluster. The hardware of the VSC-3 cluster was provided by ClusterVision, using key components from Supermicro and Intel.
The VSC-3 cluster is the successor of VSC-2 and will be used for several research projects, especially computer simulations of quantum mechanics. The new cluster will have twice as much computational power thanks to Intel’s Truescale QDR80 interconnect and Intel’s Ivy Bridge-processors.
“This cluster fulfills our special need for very high performance computing, combined with very low energy consumption,” says Dr.Eng. Ernst Haunschmid, the Technical Project Leader of the VSC-3. “Moreover, the cluster can easily be managed and monitored by Bright Cluster Manager. This new cluster gives our scientists the tools they need for years to come.”
“With the VSC-3 project we put together a few new innovative techniques,” says Dr. Alex Ninaber, Technical Director of ClusterVision. “The Green Revolution Cooling technique, the powerful chip technology from Intel, the innovative server design from Supermicro, and the user friendly cluster management software from Bright Computing are all critical to the success of this new VSC-3 cluster. Together they make for a very powerful and innovative HPC solution.”
“We are always pleased to see Bright Cluster Manager play its part in important scientific endeavors like VSC-3,” says Mr. Lee Carter, Director of EMEA at Bright Computing.”
About the Vienna Scientific Cluster
The Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC) was designed to satisfy the demand for High Performance Computing of the University of Vienna (UNVIE), the Vienna University of Technology (TUVIE), the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), and the University of Innsbruck. Access to the VSC is granted on the basis of peer-reviewed projects that, beside scientific excellence, can demonstrate the need for extremely large computational resources. Currently, the VSC counts as the fastest supercomputer in Austria and has been ranked as the 56th fastest supercomputer worldwide.
About Bright Computing
Bright Computing is transforming the way clusters are managed in the modern data center. Founded in 2009, Bright’s award winning cluster management software lets users monitor and build clusters of any size that are easy to provision, operate, monitor, manage, and scale. Bright partners include Amazon, Cisco, Cray and Dell. Customers include Boeing, NASA, Roche, Stanford University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Bright’s technology is running in over 500 data centers all over the globe. Bright has been recognized as a Red Herring Top 100 company and a Deloitte Rising Star winner, and was named Bio-IT World’s “Best of Show.”
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Source: Bright Computing