1

Overview of the User Environment

The HP XC system is a collection of computer nodes, networks, storage, and software built into a cluster that work together to present a single system. It is designed to maximize workload and I/O performance, and provide efficient management of large, complex, and dynamic workloads. The HP XC system provides a set of integrated and supported user features, tools, and components which are described in this chapter.

This chapter briefly describes the components of the HP XC environment. The following topics are covered in this chapter:

•System architecture (Section 1.1)

•User environment (Section 1.2)

•Application development environment (Section 1.3)

•Run-time environment (Section 1.4)

•Supported tools, compilers, libraries (Section 1.5)

1.1System Architecture

The HP XC architecture is designed as a clustered system with single system traits. From a user perspective, this architecture achieves a single system view, providing capabilities such as single user login, a single file system namespace, an integrated view of system resources, an integrated program development environment, and an integrated job submission environment.

1.1.1 Operating System

The HP XC system is a high-performance compute cluster that runs HP XC Linux for High Performance Computing Version 1.0 (HPC Linux) as its software base. Any applications that run correctly using Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server Version 3.0 will also run correctly using HPC Linux.

1.1.2 Node Specialization

The HP XC system is implemented as a sea-of-nodes. Each node in the system contains the same software image on its local disk. There are two physical types of nodes in the system

—a head node and client nodes.

head node

The node that is installed with the HP XC system software first — it

 

is used to generate other HP XC (client) nodes. The head node is

 

generally of interest only to the administrator of the HP XC system.

client nodes

All the other the nodes that make up the system. They are replicated

 

from the head node and are usually given one or more specialized

 

roles to perform various system functions, such as logging into the

 

system or running jobs.

The HP XC system allows for the specialization of client nodes to enable efficient and flexible distribution of the workload. Nodes can be assigned one or more specialized roles that determine how a particular node is used and what system services it provides. Of the many

Overview of the User Environment 1-1