[Mauiusers] Cluster Resources Newsletter - August 2005

[amber webb]

Cluster Resources Newsletter - August 2005
Optimizing your Compute Resources
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www.ClusterResources.com 
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NEWS/ANNOUNCEMENTS 

1.	CLUSTER RESOURCES AND SCYLD SOFTWARE FORM ALLIANCE
2.	CLUSTER RESOURCES TRAINING
3.	NEW DOCUMENTATION FEATURES
4.	NEW MAUI SNAPSHOT
5.	SCl05 PLANNING AND ACTIVITIES
6.	DID YOU KNOW: GENERIC METRICS

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CLUSTER RESOURCES AND SCYLD SOFTWARE FORM ALLIANCE

Cluster Resources and Scyld Software recently announced an agreement 
that extends Scyld's Beowulf Linux Clustering solution to include Scyld

Taskmaster Suite, a workload and policy management toolset based upon 
Moab technologies.
 
The suite, which is built around Moab's architecture, will be
officially available 
in the next few months. The suite provides end users and system
administrators 
with a sophisticated workload policy manager, advanced scheduling and a
highly 
intuitive graphical user interface, accessible locally for
administrators or through 
a remote Web portal for end users. 

Cluster Resources and Scyld Software created Scyld TaskMaster Suite to
offer 
customers combined benefits from both companies. Cluster Resources' 
customers have experienced significant performance improvements with
system 
utilization levels in the 90 percent to 99 percent range, and Scyld
Software's 
customers have experienced total cost of ownership savings approaching
50 
percent compared to alternative clustering approaches.

"Scyld Beowulf is known for dramatically simplifying the deployment and

management of Linux clusters," said Marco Annaratone, general manager 
of Scyld Software. "The new policy-based management capabilities of
Scyld's 
TaskMaster Suite, with its graphical user interface and Web-based
access, 
allows engineers, scientists and researchers to spend more time focused
on 
critical development efforts."

To learn more about Scyld TaskMaster Suite, visit: 
http://www.scyld.com/taskmaster-datasheet.pdf and to learn more about
its 
underlying technology, Moab Cluster Suite, go to: 
http://www.clusterresources.com/products/moabclustersuite.shtml.


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CLUSTER RESOURCES TRAINING
 
Cluster Resources' technical team wishes to thank the participants of
August's 
training.  Turnout was exceptional, with attendance exceeding 150
percent of 
anticipated levels.  Because there was not room for everyone who wanted
to 
participate, even with overbooking, Cluster Resources was not able to
address
all demand and will host another free training session in January.  

If you are interested in participating in the January training, please
contact 
Amber Webb at awebb at clusterresources.com at your earliest convenience
to reserve
your slot.

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NEW DOCUMENTATION FEATURES

Cluster Resources released new PDF and web-based documentation for
several 
products in the past month.  The PDF documentation allows users to
locally 
browse and print manuals for convenient offline review.  The web-based

documentation includes numerous content, formatting, and organizational

enhancements recommended by the community.  Cluster Resources is also 
releasing WIKI-based online documentation in the coming weeks to allow
greater 
community involvement in recommending best practices, assisting each
other with 
usage issues, etc.  The new documentation is available to the community
at the 
following locations:

Moab 4.2.2:  
http://clusterresources.com/moabdocs/MoabWorkloadManagerAdminManual.pdf

Maui 3.2.6:  
http://clusterresources.com/moabdocs/MoabWorkloadManagerAdminManual.pdf

Moab 4.2.3:   Available to customers and partners with their login
account information.
TORQUE 1.2.0: http://www.clusterresources.com/torquedocs20/ 

Cluster Resources is continually trying to improve documentation and is
happy 
to receive suggestions from the user community.  Please e-mail
suggestions to 
support at clusterresources.com.

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NEW MAUI SNAPSHOT

Cluster Resources recently released a new Maui snapshot that fixes a
number of
internal job management issues, improves fault handling and logging,
and updates
a number of communication protocols to allow better interaction with
peer 
services.

This snapshot also follows a new version formatting that includes
explicit 
snapshot version information at runtime. The formatting means that
administrators 
can issue a "maui --version" or "showq --version" and see both the Maui

release and snapshot version info for the installed package.  Based
upon feedback 
from the user community, the formatting change is intended to let
administrators 
know the exact version of Maui they are using.  Both TORQUE and Moab
previously used
this version formatting system.

Please continue to submit patches, suggestions, and comments 
support at clusterresources.com so we can continue to enhance this
product.

The latest Maui 3.2.6 patch 14 snapshot is now available for download
at 
http://www.clusterresources.com/cri/maui.jsp.  Cluster Resources also
offers
 technical support for Maui.  Learn more at
http://www.clusterresources.com/techsupport.shtml.

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SCl05 PLANNING AND ACTIVITIES

Cluster Resources would like to help you drive more traffic to your
booth at 
the SCl05 tradeshow and conference.  If you use software products
Cluster 
Resources develops or maintains (e.g. Moab, Maui, TORQUE), Cluster 
Resources would like to display your logo and booth number at its
booth.  
Cluster Resources hopes to also provide signs that can be used at your

booth to show the use of these technologies.  If you are interested in

collaborating with Cluster Resources, please e-mail 
awebb at clusterresources.com .

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DID YOU KNOW: GENERIC METRICS

Moab can detect site-specific environmental factors, called generic
metrics, 
to let organizations monitor, manage, and report any site specific
resource 
metric that can be measured.  Organizations can use this feature to
track compute resource attributes including node temperature, software
failure 
occurrences, memory faults, node application performance, etc. 
Detection of 
these metrics simplifies administrators jobs by allowing them to
automate 
policies or create reports based on occurrences.

The metrics can be set to trigger specified tasks or initiate
notifications when 
thresholds are reached, modify node allocation affinity for specific
jobs, 
preempt workload, create reservations, or display current, average,
maximum 
and minimum values in reports and charts.  

An organization might use generic metrics to monitor node temperatures
and 
shut down a node to prevent it from overheating.  Other functions like
this can 
reduce cluster maintenance and prevent problems on clusters.  Reporting
of 
generic metrics can help organizations better identify cluster
performance 
and address issues as fast as they arise.

To learn how to use generic metrics to improve a cluster's performance
or track 
important occurrences, visit 

http://www.clusterresources.com/products/mwm/docs423/9.2accounting.shtml.

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Contact Us: 
Product Feedback, Technical Support, Consulting and Custom Development

queries can be sent to info at clusterresources.com or call us at +1 (801)
873-3400

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