In the second post about Cloudblitz ( http://cloudblitz.codeplex.com ) we'll examine how to use it to submit jobs to a deployed Azure cluster. Keep in mind that in Microsoft's HPC scheduler implementation, jobs are just containers. They contain one...

I'm happy to announce the availability of Cloudblitz, a tool (framework) to deploy HPC clusters in Azure programmatically via Powershell, then submit jobs to them via Powershell as well. You can find it at http://cloudblitz.codeplex.com The tool...

When you deploy a HPC cluster on Azure, you typically want to run some application in it besides those provided in the azure samples. Those applications may require their own ports to be opened on the internal network and endpoints to be established for...

After Wenming’s post on deploying an azure hpc cluster with powershell, I have been looking for an easy way to transfer applications & data to / from such cluster. I have found that in HPC SP3 the hpcpack command includes the option to upload and...

It is certainly possible to run SQL Server 2008 R2 in Azure virtual machines, but keep in mind that they are not persistent between deployments, hence you want to use them for testing only and be aware of potential data loss. In order to mitigate that...

Azure Connect is a service that lets you establish a vpn tunnel (for want of a better word) between a virtual machine running in Azure and another running on premises. The connection is point-to-point, meaning that you will need to configure it on every...

A quick clarification: Azure allocates resources to your role as long as it is deployed, whether it is running or not. Billing starts when the deployment is complete and finishes when it is deleted. Roles that are deployed will be billed for the deployed...

I have summarized here all the steps you need to take in order to deploy an Azure VM. Step 1: Get your certificates I assume that you have an active Azure subscription and you have installed visual studio 2010, the azure sdk and tools and activated...

Microsoft has recently published a set of guides to build your own private cloud solution using Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager and its Self-Service Portal 2.0 They cover planning, deployment and operations. You can find them here. ...

I'd like to share with you some tips to mitigate a few frustrating intermittent problems with hyper-v and system center. 1. Data Protection Manager 2010 BEFORE installing DPM agents on systems running Hyper-V R2, you must install hotfixes KB975921...

The recommendation for people setting up live migration clusters is to isolate different kinds of traffic on their own networks: Public network to access the cluster and the virtual machines running on it “Private” cluster heartbeat network “live migration...

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) has been offering a relatively simple way of doing physical-to-virtual migrations (P2V) for a while. You just click on the “Convert Physical Server” icon and off you go. Despite the name, it also works with...

With Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 you get the opportunity to boot directly from a vhd file. The operating system in the vhd file will have direct access to the machine hardware. It will not run as a virtual machine with synthetic or emulated adapters...

Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions from Microsoft Press is available as a FREE download.   This 15MB E-Book gives an overview of all current Microsoft Virtualization technologies: Hyper-V, the Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization...

I have finally updated my notes on the installation of Infiniband on Windows Server 2008. They now cover the released version 2.0 of Mellanox WinOF stack. You can find the document in my skydrive public folder . Let me know if you find it useful. ...

On a Windows HPC Server 2008 head node, that is... 1. No Infiniband on the head node In many cases people want to save themselves some money by not installing an Infiniband adapter on the head node, thereby also sparing a port on that expensive...

I've got a lot of questions about Live Migration in 2008 R2. Rather than writing a long post on it, I thought I'd point you at some resources I found useful whilst setting up my test environment, so you can build one too: - Frank Cicalese's (virtualization...

I use hyper-v on my laptop. When I know I don't need VMs for the day, I can squeeze a bit more performance out of the machine by turning hyper-v off with: bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off and a reboot. To turn it back on: bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype...

There are some quite interesting improvements in Windows Server 2008 R2 (what was wrong with W7 as a name?) that help us progress toward a dynamic infrastructure. Three of them are worthy of highlighting: live migration of virtual machines in hyper-v...

I have received a few questions about upgrades from the evaluation version that you can download from microsoft.com/hpc to a full version. The good news is that the evaluation version is fully functional, so you won't need a complete re-installation....

You’ve prepared your templates, configured your network, your firewalls and everything you could think of, yet your automated provisioning takes forever and eventually fails… Well, check if you have a patching task in your node template. If you do, you...

Well, there is no upgrade path, so the quickest way is to re-image. Download the RC build of the HPC software from connect.microsoft.com. If you have Infiniband cards, download the latest WinIB-ND drivers (1.4.0.2577) from http://www.mellanox.com.   ...

I have been investigating some more in the area of Green IT, S+S. Some ideas and a lot of questions have come to mind. Please read on and let me know if they make any sense. By the way, Part 1 is here :-) 1. How do you understand the status quo...

Fantastic news! Mellanox has released the beta 2 version of their WinIB 1.4 stack , which works with HPC Server 2008 beta 2 and has Network Direct providers for their latest ConnectX cards. The results announced at ISC 08 are outstanding: - 2 microseconds...

Phil Pennington and I presented a session on cluster performance optimization at Teched 2008 in Orlando. It made it in the top 20 list by customer satisfaction!!! To all those who were there and voted for us: Thank you!!! To all those who were not...