Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 SP2 – The Evolution

Earlier this week Microsoft made available for download the Beta Build of the next upgrade to the latest iteration of Windows for Supercomputers.

Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 (SP2) Beta is now live on Microsoft Connect where early adopters can grab it and start testing it immediately.

Concomitantly with the first testing development milestone of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 SP2, Microsoft also published documentation designed to allow HPC customers to understand the evolution introduced by this service pack.

Testers need to head over to TechNet in order to understand “What's New in Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 Beta.”

“HPC Pack 2008 R2 SP 2 Beta is a pre-release version of the upcoming service pack which will include a number of new features such as:

- Ability to use Virtual Machines in Azure

- Ability to run MPI-based applications in Azure

- Linq to HPC (formerly known as 'Dryad')

- Support for 'workstation nodes' to be in a different domain from the dedicated cluster hardware

- A preview of our new web-based portal,” Microsoft revealed.

When it comes down to Windows Azure integration, Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 SP2 is designed to allow customers to add Azure VM Roles to the cluster, run MPI jobs on Azure Nodes, connect to Azure Nodes with Remote Desktop, and Azure Connect on Azure Nodes.

There are additional changes related to runtime and development, such as the ability to write and run data-parallel applications using Dryad and DSC, as well as the introduction of common-data APIs for SOA workloads.

Customers with high performance computing environments looking to test drive Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 SP2 should read the TechNet documentation made available for the upgrade in order to understand the changes mentioned above, as well as get details on job scheduling and cluster management modifications.