Reduce Cluster Complexity

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Linux Networx Inc. (LNXI; Salt Lake City, UT) says that its new Clusterworx Advanced not only helps you manage and optimize your heterogeneous Linux cluster but it makes your job easier. Bundled with HPC systems from Linux Networx, such as its LS-V visualization supersystem line and its applications-tuned LS-P supersystems, Clusterworx Advanced is also qualified to operate on heterogeneous Dell and HP clusters, according to LNXI. The HPCwire website is reporting that Linux Networx is working to qualify Clusterworx Advanced for hardware from other manufacturers.

Clusterworx Advanced is designed to enable cluster administrators to install software, manage, and monitor a complex, heterogeneous cluster easily. It eliminates the need for multiple software solutions or manual processes by creating an integrated system with a single point of control. This, asserts LNXI, results in “improved system performance, and increased uptime while reducing system administration costs and overhead.”

Clusterworx Advanced provides comprehensive, real-time monitoring, which can provide the ability to detect system problems immediately and thus keep your cluster up and running. Its automated system management functionality is said to improve performance and reliability by automating actions that enable issues to be addressed immediately before your entire system is degraded. Data from Clusterworx Advanced system monitoring are displayed in graphs and charts, allowing for your entire cluster — with thousands of monitoring metrics — to be understood at a glance.

Clusterworx Advanced also offers version-controlled image management, which increases reliability and provides for rollback recoverability from the unexpected complications of changes. Its multicast provisioning and updating can reduce system downtime by enabling you to broadcast updates to the entire cluster at once.

A key characteristic of Clusterworx Advanced is its streamlined graphical user interface. This interface offers a single cluster management control point said to be easy to use. The enhanced graphical user interface is also said to make provisioning, version-controlled image management, and updating simple. By streamlining the complexity of cluster management in general, LNXI says that the graphical interface can reduce users’ workloads as well as lessen the need for specialized training. Additionally, the Clusterworx Advanced command line interface lets you automate frequent procedures.

Master host system requirements for Clusterworx Advanced include a 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 (32-bit) or 2.2 GHz Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron (64-bit) system with 2GB of RAM (4GB or more recommended) and 100Mbps management network (including switches and interface card) — 1000Mbps recommended.

Linux Networx is offering a 30-day free trial program for those wishing to pilot Clusterworx Advanced. Click here to sign up for that program. Click here for the Clusterworx Advanced web page on the Linux Networx website. Click here to download a product brochure or a white paper on Clusterworx Advanced.