Microsoft HPC Pack: Tools and Extensibility

Applies To: Microsoft HPC Pack 2008, Microsoft HPC Pack 2008 R2, Microsoft HPC Pack 2012, Microsoft HPC Pack 2012 R2, Windows HPC Server 2008, Windows HPC Server 2008 R2

This topic contains links and information for HPC cluster administrators and developers about tools and extensibility for HPC Pack.

In this topic:

  • Tools in the Microsoft HPC Pack Tool Pack

  • Additional tools

  • Debugger add-ins for HPC applications

  • Cluster extensibility

Tools in the Microsoft HPC Pack Tool Pack

You can download tools in the HPC Pack Tool Pack from the Microsoft Download Center at the following pages:

The Tool Pack includes the tools in the following table.

Area Name Description Supported versions of HPC Pack Documentation

Data staging

ClusterCopy

Helps you rapidly copy files to and from on-premises compute nodes in a Windows HPC cluster.

  • HPC Pack 2012 R2

  • HPC Pack 2012 with SP1

  • HPC Pack 2008 R2

  • HPC Pack 2008

Use ClusterCopy to Move Files to and from Nodes in a Windows HPC Cluster

Benchmarking

Lizard

Helps you to determine the computational performance and efficiency that can be achieved by your Windows HPC cluster, and establish a list of optimized LINPACK benchmark parameters.

  • HPC Pack 2012 R2

  • HPC Pack 2012 with SP1

  • HPC Pack 2008 R2

  • HPC Pack 2008

Lizard Help

Networking

Network Troubleshooting Report

Contains a set of diagnostic tests that collect and analyze network information in your Windows HPC cluster to help troubleshoot network issues. If you have an InfiniBand network, the report also includes the status and capabilities of the host channel adapter (HCA) cards in that network.

  • HPC Pack 2012 R2

  • HPC Pack 2012 with SP1

  • HPC Pack 2008 R2

Install and Use the Network Troubleshooting Report Diagnostic Test

Deployment

Node XML Editor

Helps you efficiently add nodes to your Windows HPC cluster (from bare metal or as preconfigured nodes) by creating a node XML file.

  • HPC Pack 2008 R2

  • HPC Pack 2008

Related topic: Creating a Node XML File in Windows HPC Server Step-by-Step Guide

Deployment

Installation Preparation Wizard

Identifies environment and operating system configuration settings that can cause HPC Pack installation, configuration, and node deployment issues. This wizard can be run from any computer, before HPC Pack is installed. It generates an HTML report to better prepare for the deployment of your HPC cluster.

HPC Pack 2008 R2

Note

Starting in HPC Pack 2012, the HPC Pack Installation Wizard automatically performs a similar set of pre-installation tests.

Generated reports link to online documentation

Monitoring

Ganglia Integration Components

Exports HPC cluster performance metrics for use in your Ganglia-based system monitoring process.

HPC Pack 2008 R2

Included with tool download

Debugger add-ins for HPC applications

You can download debugger add-ins and extensions for MPI or SOA applications running on an HPC Pack cluster from the Microsoft Download Center at the following pages:

The debugger add-ins in the following table are available. For more information, see Microsoft HPC Debugger Add-Ins for Visual Studio.

Add-in Description Development environments Documentation

MS-MPI debugger extension

Windows Debugger extension that facilitates debugging of multiple Microsoft Message Passing Interface (MS-MPI) processes at the same time

HPC Pack 2012 with at least SP1 and Windows Debugger

Included with extension download

MPI cluster debugger add-in

Helps you debug parallel applications (in the C++ project system) that are running on a Windows HPC cluster and that communicate through MS-MPI

  • HPC Pack 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Studio 2008 SP1

  • HPC Pack 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1

C# cluster-SOA debugger add-in

Helps you debug service-oriented architecture (SOA) based applications (in the C# project system) that are running on a Windows HPC cluster.

  • HPC Pack 2012 with at least SP1 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2012

  • HPC Pack 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010

  • HPC Pack 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Studio 2008 SP1

  • HPC Pack 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Cluster extensibility

The following guides and topics are available for extending functionality of your HPC cluster:

Area Document Description

Diagnostics

Diagnostics Extensibility in Windows HPC Server Step-by-Step Guide

Cluster administrators and partners can create custom diagnostic tests to help verify that software or hardware that they have added to their HPC cluster works correctly. This guide describes custom diagnostic tests, how to define and implement several types of custom diagnostic tests, and how to add custom diagnostic tests to an HPC cluster.

Reporting

Reporting Extensibility in Windows HPC Server Guide

Cluster administrators and partners can create custom reports from the same data sources that HPC Cluster Manager uses for the built-in reports. This guide describes the features that Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 includes to provide data for custom reports about cluster use and performance. This guide also presents use cases that demonstrate how to use Microsoft products to analyze and create custom reports from the reporting data that Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 provides.

Node monitoring

Customize Metrics Collection in Windows HPC Server 2008

Modify or remove existing performance metrics or add new metrics to the metric collection that is available for monitoring the nodes in your cluster. As an example, this topic describes how to add a new metric that displays CPU idle time.

See Also

Concepts

Windows HPC Server 2008 R2

Other Resources

Microsoft HPC Pack 2012
Microsoft High Performance Computing for Developers