Increasing Throughput for Data-Intensive, High-Performance Computing (HPC) Environments for Microsoft Windows Clusters

This document describes high performance solution architecture in a data-intensive high-performance computing (HPC) environment with Windows HPC Server® 2008, Dell Power Edge™servers, Quantum StorNext® file system and Dell EqualLogic™ Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage. This paper provides a reference configuration to be used to evaluate and select the Dell solution that best fits individual requirements, based on the performance needed with the appropriate storage solution that delivers high‐aggregate throughput. However, this solution can also be based on other Dell servers and Dell high‐performance storage to meet the necessary requirements.

Additionally, this paper describes the reference configuration, performance results and best practices for the Dell solution, including data management capabilities. It does not contain information regarding the installation and deployment of the different components such as Windows HPC Server 2008, and the Dell server and storage. This paper is not intended for performance evaluation for either the storage or file system, but instead is intended as a guideline to be used to select a similar configuration.