Step 7: Configure the Head Node on the First Server

Applies To: Microsoft HPC Pack 2012, Microsoft HPC Pack 2012 R2

After you have installed HPC Pack on a server in the failover cluster, you must specify the network configuration and other settings on that server. This section describes how to specify these settings.

Configure the head node on the first server

HPC Cluster Manager starts with a view of the To-do List, which is described in detail in Configuration: HPC Cluster Manager and Step 3: Configure the Head Node in the HPC Pack Getting Started Guide. When HPC Pack is running on a failover cluster, there are a few differences in the To-do List, which are outlined in this topic.

Run the HPC Pack Network Configuration Wizard

The first step in the To-do List is to run the Network Configuration Wizard, which defines the physical network topology for the cluster and configures network services such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Routing and Remote Access service (RRAS), and the firewall. In the context of a failover cluster, the Network Configuration Wizard needs to be run only once. The following list summarizse the changes to each part of the Network Configuration Wizard when it is run in the context of a failover cluster.

• Identifying physical networks: The Network Configuration Wizard prompts you to identity which networks will be the Enterprise, Application, and Private networks. You identify each network from a list of network adapters that were discovered on the head node. After the networks are identified, they do not need to be redefined for the other server in the failover cluster. In fact, if you run the Network Configuration Wizard on the other server in the failover cluster (not required), the network adapters on the server that is currently acting as the head node will still be used to identify the network.

• Configuring DHCP: In the context of a failover cluster, some of the options usually offered by the Network Configuration Wizard in HPC Pack are disabled. This is because the failover cluster requires the IP address configuration to be defined before the HPC cluster is installed and configured.

  If you are using the configuration that is recommended in this guide (which does not include creating a clustered instance of DHCP in the failover cluster), you can enter network settings, and the wizard will configure DHCP services on both servers in the failover cluster. When the wizard configures DHCP services, it uses exclusions to allocate one half of the scope to each service.

  However, if the wizard detects that the failover cluster has a clustered instance of DHCP (not recommended), the wizard does not allow DHCP settings to be changed within the wizard. The DHCP, Domain Name System (DNS), and Gateway settings are displayed, but they cannot be changed.

• Enabling network address translation: Several of the cluster topologies isolate the compute nodes from the public network, and all traffic to and from the public network passes through the head node. If you use one of these topologies, during for the installation of HPC Pack, the Network Configuration Wizard enables network address translation (NAT) while configuring the head node, unless you have another server on the private or application networks that provide NAT or DHCP services.

  Enabling NAT on the head node enables the compute nodes to access resources on the public network. In the context of a failover cluster, NAT works correctly regardless of which server in the failover cluster is functioning as the head node at any time. If you choose a cluster topology that connects the public network to each compute node, NAT on the head node is not required.

• Configuring the firewall: The firewall configuration is the same in the context of a failover cluster as it is on a single server.

  By default, ports are open for all HPC Pack head node services. If you have applications that require access to the cluster on certain ports, you must open those ports in the firewall.

  Enabling a firewall might adversely impact the performance of IP over InfiniBand, but it will have minimal impact on performance when Winsock Direct or NetworkDirect is enabled because enabling the firewall has no effect on remote direct memory access (RDMA) packets.

Additional considerations

• In HPC Cluster Manager, when you specifically add accounts to the lists of administrators and users for the HPC cluster, add only domain group accounts, not individual user accounts. Any account that you add will become a permanent member of the corresponding HPC cluster role that you add it to. Control the membership of these roles by adding only Active Directory group accounts, and then control the membership of those groups through AD DS.

• After all the required To-do List tasks are completed, all the navigation panes are accessible. In Node Management, you will see two (or more) head nodes—the head node you just configured and the additional server or servers in the failover cluster. The additional servers will display as a head node in the Unknown state, because HPC Pack is not yet installed on it.

  

Additional references

Step 8: Install and Configure HPC Pack on Another Server That Will Run Head Node Services