Checklist: Initial Configuration of your HPC Cluster

Applies To: Windows HPC Server 2008

The following checklist includes the steps that you need to complete in order to configure your HPC cluster. Most of these steps are available in the configuration To-do List in HPC Cluster Manager.

Task Reference

Configure the cluster network by using the Network Configuration Wizard.

Configure the HPC Cluster Network

Specify the credentials to use for system configuration and when adding new nodes to the cluster.

Provide Installation Credentials

Specify the naming convention to use when generating names automatically for new compute nodes.

Specify the Compute Node Naming Series

Create a template that defines the steps to follow when configuring a compute node.

Create a Node Template

If you will be deploying compute nodes from bare metal, create a new operating system image or load an existing image that can be used to install the Windows Server operating system on the compute nodes.

Add an Operating System Image (Optional)

If you will be deploying compute nodes from bare metal and those nodes require special device drivers, add drivers for the operating system images that you created for your node template on the previous task.

Add Drivers for Operating System Images (Optional)

If you will be giving access to the cluster to other members of your organization, add or remove users or administrators for your cluster.

Add or Remove Users and Administrators (Optional)

Add nodes to your HPC cluster by using the Add Node Wizard.

Adding Nodes to a Cluster

Create job templates to limit the kinds of jobs that can be submitted to your cluster, what resources are assigned to jobs, and which users can submit jobs.

Create a Job Template (Optional)

If you will run Service-Oriented Application (SOA) jobs on your cluster, configure one or more nodes to be a Windows Communications Foundation (WCF) broker node.

Configuring WCF Broker Nodes (Optional)

If you will run jobs using the High Performance Computing Basic Profile from the Open Grid Forum, configure the HPC Basic Profile Service for your cluster.

Configuring the HPC Basic Profile Web Service (Optional)