Microsoft's Windows Compute Cluster Server (CCS) 2003 is a base operating system and a collection of tools that together faciliate the creation and usage of Windows-based HPC grid platforms. The platform is designed for use on Windows Server 2003 machines (see below) and works only on 64-bit hardware. 32-bit applications are, however, supported for deployment/operation on the grid.

The product itself is delivered on dual CDs: The first contains the base CCS O/S and the second includes the Compute Cluster Pack, which includes the necessary interfaces, utilities, and management tools to implement computing clusters. The product can be installed as is; in which case the nodes themselves can operate only as compute clusters (the CCS O/S on the first CD is not a general purpose operating system; it supports use only as a compute cluster node). If a compute node will share other responsibilities or requires capabilities beyond that provided by the compute cluster environment, the Compute Cluster Pack (the second CD) can also be installed over a Standard or Enterprise deployment of Windows Server 2003. One of these differences, for example, is the use of MS SQL Server. The product includes MSDE which is used by default to track jobs; but if the user requires a full version of SQL Server to be installed on compute nodes, then they would need to install Windows Server 2003 on the node and then install the Compute Cluster Pack onto it.

A Windows Compute Cluster includes both a single head node, which serves as the cluster's management point and provides job deployment and scheduling features; and one or more compute nodes which provide the actual CPU resources for deployed jobs. To install the head node, the O/S is installed, the machine is joined to an existing A/D domain, and then the Cluster Pack is installed. From there--depending on the network topology chosen for the grid--a provided RIS wizard allows for the setup of compute nodes such that they be added to the grid by simply connecting them and powering them up. (In single NIC topologies--see below--the individual compute nodes must be manually deployed.) Compute Admins and Compute Users can be defined by the management tools; and jobs that are run on the grid are run with the effective access rights of the user who submitted the job.

Multiple network topologies are supported for interconnecting the head and compute nodes and the public LAN, with the number of NICs required on each machine dependent on the topology selected. In the highest performance deployments, three NICs are installed in each of the head and compute nodes: One interfaces with the public network, one interfaces with the private network (for the communication of management information between nodes) and the third provides a message-passing interconnect for the nodes to intercommunicate during the processing of jobs. In the lowest performing deployments, a single NIC is installed on each node which provides the communications both between the nodes and to the public network.

The MPI capabilities of the nodes are based on MS-MPI, which is included with the software and is based on and compatible with the Argonne National Labs MPICH2 implementation of MPI2. Microsoft states that the interface runs over any network that provides a WinSock Direct-enabled driver, and lists as some examples Gigabit Ethernet, InfiniBand, and Myrinet. MS-MPI includes bindings for C, Fortran77, and Fortran90.

A trial evaulation version of CCS is available now; MS lists general availability scheduled for August. The estimated price is $469/node; with volume licensing available.

Visit Microsoft's Web site for further information.

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