The OSCAR working group has released a new version of the Open Source Cluster
Application Resources (OSCAR) toolkit, OSCAR 5.0.
OSCAR is a software package that supports the use of high-performance
computing by reducing the work of cluster configuration, installation,
operation, and management. The infrastructure underlying OSCAR 5.0 has been
completely reworked to include smart package managers, yum based image
building and package installs, easier client updating by using a repository
based approach, and optimized start ups to reduce build time. Another long
anticipated feature added in 5.0 is the ability to support multiple Linux
distributions and architectures on the same cluster.
Many other improvements to the OSCAR infrastructure, including better
prerequisite handling and pre-installation system configuration checking,
should make installation smoother than ever. Less time is wasted downloading
packages for installation types which are not of interest, due to a shift to
modular distribution tarbals.
A new utility called netbootmgr greatly reduces the amount of time spent
mucking about in the BIOS by centrally managing a nodes behavior when a
network boot is detected. You can easily switch nodes from accepting new
images to booting off their local hard drive and back again from an easy to
use interface.
Node Image deployment is also faster and easier to keep track of with new,
scalable bittorrent deployment options and an improved deployment monitor.
A new 2.6.18.1 deployment kernel for systemimager means improved hardware
support, and the newly redesigned "Use Your Own Kernel" functionality means
better support for bleeding edge equipment and customized kernels.
As one would expect, the packages included with OSCAR 5.0 have been updated,
including Maui 3.2.6p14, Torque 2.0.0p8, LAM MPI 7.1.2, MPICH 1.2.7, and
Ganglia 3.0.3. OpenMPI 1.1.1 and Sun Grid Engine (SGE) 6.0u8 are also now
included as core packages.
Looking toward future releases, a new package and database structure was
designed to prepare OSCAR for Debian support.
OSCAR 5.0 has been fully tested for use with both IA32 processors and x86_64
processors under Fedora Core 4 & 5, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0, Scientific
Linux 4, and CentOS 4. Mandrivia 2006 and SuSE Linux 10.0 (OpenSuSE) were
also tested for IA32.
OSCAR 5.0, previous OSCAR versions, and additional information about the
OSCAR project are available from the OSCAR web site:
http://oscar.openclustergroup.org/
The OSCAR working group is a consortium of industry, academic and research
participants. Organizations who contributed to OSCAR 5.0 include
Revolution Linux, Bald Guy Software, Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre,
NEC HPC Europe, IBM, Intel, Indiana University, Louisiana Tech University,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the University of Texas Health
Science Center San Antonio. OSCAR is the product of the OSCAR working group
of the Open Cluster Group (OCG). OCG is dedicated to making cluster computing
practical. The OCG and its subgroups are open to all.
Related resources:
- OSCAR Working Group Homepage
- OSCAR Project Homepage
- Open Cluster Group Homepage
- HA-OSCAR (high-availability) Working Group Homepage
- OSCAR Mailing Lists
SpyderByte.com
