HPC Cluster Setup & Management
The Holistic Lifecycle: Orchestrating the Build, the Run, and the Scale.
Managing Complexity at Scale
Cluster Management is the software layer that keeps a supercomputer usable. It answers the critical questions: "How do I ensure 1,000 nodes are identical?" and "How do I prevent one user from crashing the entire system?" We combine the initial "Build" phase with ongoing "Day 2" operations.
1. The Setup Philosophy: Infrastructure as Code
Modern HPC treats servers like cattle, not pets. We eliminate manual configuration in favor of automated provisioning:
- Golden Images: One perfect OS template for all nodes.
- Provisioning: Nodes boot via PXE and download the OS from the master.
- Ansible: Automated tweaks (user accounts, storage mounts, security).
If a node fails, we don't fix it. We reboot it, and it reloads a fresh, perfect copy of the OS in 5 minutes.
2. The Management Pillars
Workload Scheduling
Mastering Slurm configuration: Fairshare policies to balance departmental usage and Backfill to maximize CPU utilization.
User Environments
Implementing Lmod. Users load specific software versions (module load python/3.11) without conflicts, keeping the base OS clean.
High Availability
Redundant Head Nodes using Pacemaker/Corosync. If the master fails, the secondary takes over instantly without job loss.
3. "Day 2" Operations & Health
Rolling Updates
We update 1,000 nodes without downtime. We "drain" small groups of nodes, patch them, reboot, and move to the next set while the cluster continues to work.
Node Health Checks (NHC)
Automated scripts run before every job. If a node has low memory or hardware issues, NHC marks it OFFLINE instantly to prevent your job from crashing.
HPC Management Toolset
| Category | Tool | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduler | Slurm | Managing resource allocation and job prioritization. |
| Provisioning | Warewulf / xCAT | Stateless OS image management and network booting. |
| Config Mgmt | Ansible | Infrastructure as Code for software and account updates. |
| Monitoring | Prometheus + Grafana | Real-time visualization of cluster health and throughput. |
| Health | NHC | Proactive hardware failure prevention at the job level. |
Command Your Infrastructure
Download our "HPC Cluster Admin Playbook" to learn how to automate your Slurm and Warewulf deployments.
Download Management Guide (.docx)