ONE WIRE, ONE INTERCONNECT SOLUTION FOR CLUSTERS RUNNING WINDOWS® HPC SERVER 2008

“With the introduction of Windows HPC Server 2008, Microsoft is providing a broad platform for software vendors and an expanded playing field for hardware manufacturers to enable new innovations in high performance computing. As a key ecosystem partner, we are actively collaborating with Microsoft to ensure that our InfiniBand products seamlessly integrate with this important new platform and deliver optimal performance.”Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corporation

PARTNER PROFILE

QLogic is a leading supplier of HPC clustering and storage networking solutions, including InfiniBand switches.

QLogic is in the unique position of being able to offer the only complete, end-to-end InfiniBand (IB) network infrastructure needed for compute clusters inclusive of multiple IB HCA options, high-density, highly configurable large-port count IB directors and edge switches, and comprehensive software and support for the HPC market.

SITUATION

As the high-performance computing (HPC) market matures, the advent of multi-core processors and low latency messaging protocols, such as InfiniBand, has transformed the standard computer platform from yesterday’s mainframe computers to today’s less expensive computer clusters.

Given the widespread use of commodity components within these clusters, flexibility, power, and cost have drastically been affected, reducing overall computational costs and making HPC more affordable than ever before.

IT managers must deploy scalable HPC networks that meet a full spectrum of concerns. A common issue faced when working with HPC clusters is how to effectively share data between individual clusters while maintaining or increasing total I/O throughput, thereby ensuring that each cluster is providing the most return on investment.

For IT professionals managing HPC environments, the main challenges are:

• building and configuring a compute cluster that performs at or near its optimal capacity.

• keeping the cluster running at peak performance for each HPC application.

• helping secure the network against privacy loss, data theft, and data integrity compromises.

SOLUTION

To meet these challenges, Microsoft and QLogic have collaborated to deliver an integrated HPC cluster computing interconnect solution that is cost-saving, simple to deploy, manage, and use with existing Windows-based IT infrastructure.

Windows HPC Server 2008 is a highly productive platform for deploying, developing, and accessing dedicated HPC clusters.

QLogic’s 9000 family of InfiniBand based 10 and 20Gbps multi-protocol fabric directors form the cornerstone of QLogic’s high-performance “one wire” cluster computing interconnect solutions.

QLogic 9000 SERIES FABRIC DIRECTORS

QLogic’s 9000 family of InfiniBand based 10 and 20Gbps multi-protocol fabric directors form the cornerstone of QLogic’s high-performance “one wire” cluster computing interconnect solutions.

Integrated Cluster Computing Interconnect Solution QLogic’s 9000 multi-protocol Fabric Directors maximize cluster and grid computing

interconnect performance while simplifying and reducing data center costs. The 9000 Fabric Director systems leverage the latest InfiniBand-based technologies to

provide industry leading port densities, throughput performance, and ultra-low latency.

Virtual I/O Integration. The 9000 family incorporates the innovative Virtual I/O Controller (VIC) technology, which enables hosts on InfiniBand fabrics to transparently access either Fibre Channel or Ethernet networks or both. VIC technology eliminates the cost and complexity of running multiple server physical connections for storage, network, and inter-processor communications, and allows each virtual network type to scale independently over a single wire connection.

Fabric Scalability. The 9000 series Fabric Directors economically support most any cluster interconnect requirement— from small networks with as few as 12 nodes using a single 2U chassis to multi-thousand node networks using multiple Fabric Director systems working in concert as a single high performance virtual fabric.

Advanced Features. Advanced features are supported, such as non-disruptive firmware upgrade, port-to-port and module-to-module failover, component level diagnostics and alarming, and both in-band and out-of-band remote management.

WINDOWS HPC SERVER 2008

Windows HPC Server 2008 combines the power of a 64-bit Windows Server® platform with rich, out-of-the-box HPC functionality to improve the productivity, and reduce the complexity of an HPC environment. Windows HPC Server 2008 increases productivity by providing:

• A rich and integrated end-user experience scaling from the desktop application to the clusters.

• Microsoft management tools that you can utilize to centrally manage the Windows Server infrastructure, including full support for command-line interfaces for administrators.

FURTHER INFORMATION

For more information about Windows HPC Server 2008 and HPC, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/hpc

For more information about QLogic, and its high performance InfiniBand connectors, please visit http://www.qlogic.comwww.qlogic.com

This data sheet is for informational purposes only. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, with-out the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

The To Do List simplifies cluster configuration tasks.

• An updated networking wizard, new network diagnostics tools, and a simplified way of performing network driver management.

• Support for NetworkDirect, Microsoft’s new Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) interface for high-speed, low-latency networks. With an architecture that directly bypasses OS and TCP/IP overhead, NetworkDirect can achieve better performance for massively parallel programs that can utilize very low-latency and high-bandwidth, enabling more efficient CPU utilization.

ARCHITECTURE

A typical Windows HPC Server 2008 architecture is shown above. The Windows HPC Server 2008 head node controls and mediates all access to the cluster resources, acts as the single point of management, deployment, and job scheduling for the cluster, and can failover to a backup head node in the case of failure.

Windows HPC Server 2008 uses the existing corporate infrastructure and Microsoft Active Directory® for security, account management, and Operations management using tools such as Systems Center Operations Manager 2007.

BENEFITS

With Windows HPC Server 2008 and QLogic InfiniBand fabric directors, customers can deploy a full-featured, integrated, scalable and highly secure HPC solution that delivers the best price to performance available.

Scalable performance Windows HPC Server 2008, with QLogic’s high performance InfiniBand, delivers extremely low latency and substantial 20Gbit bandwidth, providing support for very large clusters up to multi-thousands of nodes.

Reduced cost and improved ROI By better leveraging Windows HPC Server 2008 cluster compute resources, customers can reduce the costs and complexities of deploying and operating HPC clusters. Moreover, simpler HPC clusters, and network cabling, can reduce power and cooling requirements, which can dramatically reduce the total cost of cluster computing.

Familiar Windows environment Windows-based HPC ensures that you can fully exploit your company’s existing Windows-based expertise and IT investments.

Increased quality and faster than before time-to-insight. When running optimization programs on a Windows HPC Server 2008 cluster, the end result is faster than before time-to-insight and higher quality levels.