High-Performance Computing Cluster - Dell Broadcom NetXtreme Family of Adapters User Manual

Broadcom Teaming Services: Broadcom NetXtreme II Network Adapter User Guide
NOTE: Microsoft Network Load Balancing is not supported with Microsoft Cluster Software.

High-Performance Computing Cluster

Gigabit Ethernet is typically used for the following three purposes in high-performance computing cluster (HPCC) applications:
Inter-Process Communications (IPC): For applications that do not require low-latency, high-bandwidth interconnects
(such as Myrinet, InfiniBand), Gigabit Ethernet can be used for communication between the compute nodes.
I/O: Ethernet can be used for file sharing and serving the data to the compute nodes. This can be done simply using an
NFS server or using parallel file systems such as PVFS.
Management & Administration: Ethernet is used for out-of-band (ERA) and in-band (OMSA) management of the nodes
in the cluster. It can also be used for job scheduling and monitoring.
In our current HPCC offerings, only one of the on-board adapters is used. If Myrinet or IB is present, this adapter serves I/O
and administration purposes; otherwise, it is also responsible for IPC. In case of an adapter failure, the administrator can use
the Felix package to easily configure adapter 2. Adapter teaming on the host side is neither tested nor supported in HPCC.
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