Platform Manager (formerly known as Scali Manage and acquired by Platform Computing in October of 2007) provides configuration and monitoring capabilities specifically for the management of Linux clusters. The vendor specifically emphasizes the product's heterogenous features: Deployment/provisioning utilizes "intelligent provisioning" technology that itself leverages package-based, image-based, and diskless/stateless installation methods. Multiple Linux O/S (Red Hat, SuSE, CentOS) and platform architectures (AMD, Intel--including Itanium--on Dell, HP, IBM, Sun, and more) are supported, and changes may be made independently on different parts of a cluster.

Using Platform Manager, administrators can centralize the installation and configuration of multiple nodes within a cluster. Both a GUI and a CLI provide a centralized management point for the nodes in the cluster or multiple clusters; with the vendor noting the product's support for multiple interconnects, including Gig Ethernet, Myrinet, and InfiniBand.

Via the interface, administrators can perform typical maintenance tasks simultaneously against the multiple nodes in the clusters, including the processing of tasks such as resource management, monitoring, alarms, job management, out-of-band operations, and software distributions. Monitoring tasks, in particular, include the ability to monitor variables and metrics including CPU load, traffic, disk space, fan speed, and temperature with multiple view options, including a Web-based historical view, 2D/3D bar graphs, and compact/full screen options. External data sources--including SNMP--can be interfaced.

New to the Platform Manager product (Platform Manager is the first release of the product by Platform Computing following the Scali Manage acquisition) is integration with Platform's existing Platform LSF product. Platform LSF provides workload management features for HPC grids.

Platform Manager is available now. Visit the vendor's Web site for further information.