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High Performance Computing on Windows


The Compute Cluster is accessible from the RWTH network as well as from other universities in North Rhine Westphalia (RV-NRW).

Login and file transfer are only possible via the Remote Desktop Connection program, which is available (depending on the version and language of the Windows operating system) from Start -> All Programs -> Accessoires -> Communications -> Remote Desktop Connection. If the program is not installed, it can be downloaded at not cost from the Microsoft homepage. On Unix, the rdesktop program can be used, which can be downloaded for free.

Interactive Usage

Only a few systems are available for interactive use. These dedicated systems should be used primarily for preparation and postprocessing of batch jobs, for programming and debugging, and are not meant to run production jobs. Because of that, only limited cpu time is available for interative work.

In order to make the access to the cluster independent of the actual state of a specific machine, a network alias is used to name the interactive machine:

  • cluster-win.rz.rwth-aachen.de - (Windows Server 2008 64bit)

To establish a graphical connection to the cluster on Windows using the Remote Desktop Connection program, type the network name from above into the field Computer. If rdesktop on Linux is used, the network name has to be specified as a command line argument. In the following dialog username and password have to be specified, namely the username in the form of WIN-HPC\xx?????? to select the WIN-HPC domain (xx?????? denotes your login).

Notice: If you connect from a Linux workstation please use the option "-a" of the rdesktop program to access our servers. The option "-a 24" improves the color depth and the option "-k de" enables a Germany keyboard layout.

If you intend to use the Unix frontend of the cluster, please read the separate description for the Unix cluster.

Batch Usage

Production runs (requiring a significant amount of compute time) always have to be carried out using the Microsoft Compute Cluster Scheduler. This system combines all computers attached to it to a single resource cluster. The user can submit a compute job to this cluster from any interactive frontend machine. The scheduling component of the cluster will then start the job on a  compute node as soon as a suited machine is available, respecting the resource specifications of the job (e.g. cpu time).

The used scheduler is WINHPC-HN.

Data management

For each user, several different filesystems are available, which differ in respect to their size and the durability of data stored there. Please respect the characteristics of H:, W: and %TEMP%. In order to execute and develop .NET programs on the network drives H: and W:, the Code Access Security ( CAS ) has to be respected. By default, a .NET application is executed in a user context with reduced rights, for example access to network drives is not allowed for such applications, unless otherwise granted. A simple workaround in Visual Studio 2005 is to enable ClickOnce Security under Security in the project settings and select Full Trust Application.

ISV-Software

The Cluster contains a couple of ISV software packages (see below) that can be used interactively for short-running tasks, but also often provide the means to be used via the batch system. In addition to that, a growing list of packages offers the ability to directly employ multicore and cluster systems. We maintain the following informative pages on how to use these software packages especially on our cluster system:

Hardware and Software equipment

Further information

Abschlußinformationen