HPCwire: Cluster Resources, Microsoft Demo Moab Hybrid Cluster Solution

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September 22, 2008

Cluster Resources, Microsoft Demo Moab Hybrid Cluster Solution

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NEW YORK, Sept. 22 -- High Performance on Wall Street -- Cluster Resources Inc. will present the Moab Hybrid Cluster solution at HPC on Wall Street today in New York. The company will demonstrate how to maximize mixed Windows and Linux environments by leveraging the Moab Cluster Management toolset from Cluster Resources.

The latest version of Moab Hybrid Cluster -- an HPC solution that dynamically changes cluster servers between Linux and Windows based on workload, defined policies, and application needs -- now includes added support for the release of Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008. Improvements include the automation of setup through added wizards, added policies to apply fine-grained control over multiple operating systems, and additional documentation.

Windows HPC Server 2008, the successor to Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, is based on the Windows Server 2008 operating system and is designed to increase productivity, scalability and manageability. Key features include new high-speed networking, highly efficient and scalable cluster-management tools, advanced failover capabilities, and support for partners' clustered file systems.

"Cluster Resources is the leader for dynamically managing workload across multiple mixed Windows and Linux platforms," said Kyril Faenov, general manager of Microsoft HPC Division. "Together with Microsoft, Cluster Resources has repeatedly proven its leadership with successful deployments of the Moab Hybrid Cluster solution at multiple joint Microsoft and Cluster Resources customer sites."

Mixed dual-boot clusters can improve cluster efficiency because of their ability to serve both Linux and Windows users. The hybrid solution overcomes the capacity-planning problem of estimating the number of servers allocated to different OS resource pools and increases utilization rates by creating an efficient shared resource pool. Traditionally, these static resource pools have different peak usage times when one OS remains idle while the other has a backlog of workload. The hybrid model breaks down OS resource silos, letting OS pools grow and shrink to take advantage of otherwise idle compute servers. Moab also intelligently overcomes hardware and job failures by reallocating resources with the proper OS to compensate for the failures.

The supercomputer known as Firefly, located at Holland Computing Center in Nebraska, one of the largest hybrid-OS supercomputing facilities, runs both Linux and Windows operating systems. The Moab Hybrid Cluster solution has made platform choice a thing of the past on Firefly and allowed the center to meet the needs of a wider range of users, dynamically switching between operating systems based on workload and application needs.

"We have seen a steady increase in demand from our Windows customer base. The features and scalability associated with Windows Server 2008, combined with Moab's ability to switch between running Windows and Linux on the same cluster, are critical to our success and ability to meet customer demand," said Jim Skirvin, president and CEO of Holland Computing Center.

"We continue to see increased interest in Windows-based clusters, and we created this solution to help enable organizations to facilitate a highly efficient migration to and co-existence with Windows HPC Server 2008," stated Michael Jackson, president of Cluster Resources. "So whether your business is a financial institution migrating off of Solaris or an organization expecting to have applications that need different operating systems in the foreseeable future, the Moab Hybrid Cluster solution mitigates the need for inefficient siloed clusters, eliminates capacity-planning problems and unifies administration and management to improve your experience and reduce overall costs."

A short video showing how Moab Hybrid Cluster can be applied to both new and existing clusters to help yield maximum hardware utilization and ROI can be viewed at www.clusterresources.com/videos/hybrid.

About Cluster Resources

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