Things to Know About the Windows Azure HPC Scheduler

The Windows Azure HPC Scheduler supports the six HPC plug-ins listed in the following table. You import the plug-ins through the ServiceDefinition.csdef file for your Windows Azure deployment. For more information, see Overview of the Windows Azure HPC Scheduler.

Plug-in	Description
HpcHeadNode	Provides job scheduling and resource management functionality. Supported on a Windows Azure worker role.
HpcComputeNode	Provides runtime support for Message Passing Interface (MPI), service-oriented architecture (SOA), and LINQ to HPC applications. Supported on a worker role. Note LINQ to HPC is a preview, not a production release. For more information, see the Windows HPC team blog.
HpcBrokerNode	Provides broker and session management functionality to help distribute incoming SOA service requests to the available service hosts and then return the messages to the client. Supported on a worker role.
HpcVmNode	Provides runtime support for MPI and SOA applications. Supported on a VM role.
HpcWebFrontEnd	Provides a built-in web portal and HTTP web service (based on the REST model) to provide job submission interfaces to the scheduler. Supported on a web role.
HpcWebFrontEndHeadNode	Combines the functionality provided by the HpcHeadNode and HpcWebFrontEnd plug-ins. Supported on either a worker role or a web role.

The Windows Azure HPC Scheduler SDK includes the Microsoft.Hpc.Azure.ClusterConfig class library and management tools that can package a Windows Azure application using the HPC plug-ins.

The sample solution referred to in Getting Started with Application Deployment with the Windows Azure HPC Scheduler includes a sample application that can be built and run from Visual Studio. This application uses the HPC plug-ins and the ClusterConfig class library to enable your HPC or parallel application to run on Windows Azure. This sample and planned future samples will be published to the Windows Azure Samples Library.

The Windows Azure HPC Scheduler supports failover services for the job scheduler, service-oriented architecture (SOA) jobs, and the Windows Azure HPC Scheduler Web Portal by enabling multiple instances of the following nodes:

• Head node
  
  
• Broker node
  
  
• Web frontend node
  
  

Note
If a deployment includes multiple instances of a head node, those instances can run jobs (but not schedule jobs) simultaneously. This behavior is different from an on-premises Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 cluster configured for high availability of the head node in the context of a failover cluster. In an on-premises cluster, only one head node can run or schedule jobs at one time.

Hpcpack is automatically installed on all nodes that you include in your Windows Azure HPC Scheduler deployment. You can use hpcpack to copy files from the storage account to a node in the deployment, or from a node to the storage account. For example, you can run hpcpack upload or hpcpack download as part of a startup script for your Windows Azure HPC Scheduler deployment, or as part of a job. For more information, see hpcpack.

Hpcfile is automatically installed on all nodes that you include in your Windows Azure HPC Scheduler deployment. You can use hpcfile to move files and perform file operations between one node and another node within the Windows Azure HPC Scheduler deployment. However, you cannot use hpcfile to move files and perform file operations between an on-premises computer and a node in a Windows Azure HPC Scheduler deployment. For more information, see hpcfile.

HPC Cluster Manager cannot be used

LINQ to HPC is supported only on worker nodes

Issues when the same storage account is used for more than one deployment

• Windows Azure HPC Scheduler SDK download
  
  
• What's New in Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 3