14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is providing customers with high performance computing environments the chance to test drive the second upgrade to Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 free of charge.
An evaluation edition of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 is now available through the Microsoft Download Center, released concomitantly with HPC Pack 2008 R2 SP2.
According to the Redmond company, customers can download the free Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 SP2 RTM trial and test it for no less than 180 days.
“Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Suite provides enterprise-class tools, performance, & scalability for a highly productive HPC environment,” Microsoft stated.
“The Suite provides a complete & integrated cluster environment including the OS, HPC Job Scheduler, Message Passing Interface v2 (MPI2) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) interactive application support, cluster management & monitoring, the ability to distribute Excel calculations, and the ability to harness idle Windows 7 workstations.”
As was the case with previous Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 evaluation releases, the download sports both the Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Edition operating system as well as the HPC Pack 2008 R2 Enterprise application.
Of course, Microsoft has already worked to integrate HPC Pack 2008 R2 Service Pack 2.
What customers will get is an ISO image of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 SP2 RTM which they will need to burn, using the subsequent installation media to deploy the HPC platform. During the installation, the following product key can be used Q7PRR-M2WBM-RJJ99-FG393-MGY3B.
“The key provided is an evaluation key that cannot be activated. You will need to reset the 'activation timer' after 60 days, this will give you another period of evaluation, at which point you can reset it again (up to 180 total days). You can do this across the cluster via the 'clusrun' feature to run the following command: cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -rearm Followed by a reboot, which can be scripted the shutdown /r /f command,” the software giant said.
Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 (SP2) RTM is available for download here.