OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Dec.  6, 2002 -- The OSCAR working group is pleased  to
announce the release of version 2.0 of the Open Source Cluster Application
Resources (OSCAR) toolkit.   This  announcement  follows  the  successful
demonstration of version 2.0 at the  IEEE  SuperComputing  2002  (SC2002)
conference in Baltimore, MD.


The OSCAR toolkit is used to build, configure and manage  clusters.   Its
primary objective is to make use of "best  practices"  for  Cluster  High
Performance Computing (HPC).  OSCAR enables a user to setup and maintain a
cluster with the same software typically found  on  HPC  Clusters,  while
greatly reducing the complexity.


This marks the third consecutive year that OSCAR  has  been  featured  at
SuperComputing.  In the year leading  to  SC2002,  the  toolkit  has  had
several significant additions including: packaging API with test harness,
remote package retrieval, node management,  environment  management,  and
extended distribution support including IA-64.


The OSCAR Package API enables authors to add their own  software  to  the
installation process.  In addition, a set of scripts may  be  invoked  to
provide package configuration outside of the RPM.


A remote package download tool, OSCAR Package Downloader (OPD), as well a
package selection facility have been added.   Together  these  facilities
enable 3rd party packages to be added without being directly included  in
the OSCAR distribution.  Once an OSCAR package is obtained from the remote
location the package selection can be tailored to  a  user's  needs  from
within the OSCAR Wizard GUI.


Node management has been enhanced to support the addition and deletion of
cluster nodes after the initial installation.  This is performed  through
the OSCAR Wizard GUI.


The Switcher tool provides a clean interface to manage environment at both
system and user levels throughout the cluster.   This  tool  extends  the
existing facility of Modules to enable persistent changes through a simple
command line interface.  This allows system wide defaults, e.g.   default
MPI to use, to be manipulated by users at their discretion.  Additionally,
Switcher  ensures  environment  consistency  on  both   interactive   and
non-interactive shells (i.e.  rsh/ssh).


The 2.0 release offers support for RedHat 7.2 & 7.3, IA-32 and IA-64  and
Mandrake 8.2.


The OSCAR working group is a consortium of industry, academic and research
participants.  Primary contributors are Bald  Guy  Software,  Dell,  IBM,
Intel,   Indiana   University   (IU),   Intel,   MSC.Software,   National
Computational Science Alliance  (NCSA),  Oak  Ridge  National  Laboratory
(ORNL) and Sherbrooke University.  OSCAR is the product  of  the  initial
working group of the Open Cluster Group (OCG).  OCG is dedicated to making
cluster computing practical.  These groups are open to anyone  interested
in participating.


At over 80,000 downloads to date (Dec 2002), OSCAR is  the  most  popular
open source cluster HPC solution.


Related resources:
 + OSCAR Working Group Homepage
   http://www.OpenClusterGroup.org/OSCAR

 + OSCAR Project Homepage
   http://sourceforge.net/projects/oscar

 + Open Cluster Group Homepage
   http://www.OpenClusterGroup.org

 + OSCAR Mailing Lists
     User Questions: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
        Development: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


ORNL is a Department of Energy multiprogram research facility managed  by
UT-Battelle.





-------------------------------------------------------
This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek
Welcome to geek heaven.
http://thinkgeek.com/sf
_______________________________________________
Oscar-users mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/oscar-users

Reply via email to