{"id":885,"date":"2012-11-02T16:01:02","date_gmt":"2012-11-02T14:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldblogs.uct.ac.za\/blog\/big-bytes\/2012\/11\/02\/aws-and-starcluster"},"modified":"2022-09-26T20:24:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T18:24:26","slug":"aws-and-mits-starcluster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/index.php\/2012\/11\/02\/aws-and-mits-starcluster\/","title":{"rendered":"AWS and MIT’s StarCluster"},"content":{"rendered":"We've been playing about with Amazon Web Service cloud based\r\ninfrastructure for the last few weeks and thought we'd share this.\r\nUsing\u00a0StarCluster<\/a>\u00a0and following this\u00a0very cool demo<\/a>\u00a0we launched a 3 node cluster\r\non Amazon\u2019s Elastic Compute Cloud infrastructure within the space of\r\nabout 10 minutes.\r\n\r\nYou'll need an Amazon account (i.e. you give Amazon your credit card\r\ndetails) and create a private key pair via their website.\u00a0 You then\r\nlaunch a small machine instance of StarCluster to act as the coordination\r\nserver.\u00a0 Installation of StarCluster is a single command.\u00a0 To configure\r\nthe 'personality' of the cluster one modifies the configuration file\r\n(about 2 lines).\u00a0 To set up permissions you need to copy your key to the\r\ncoordination server and reference this key in the config file.\r\n\r\nStarting the cluster is also one command, as is adding or deleting\r\nnodes.\u00a0 In about 5 minutes we had a head node and a worker node. \u00a0We decided to add a second worker node which took about 4 minutes.\u00a0 StarCluster uses Oracle\r\nGrid Engine and works in a very standard manner.\u00a0 We were able to\r\ncompile and submit an OpenMPI job in the space of about 60 seconds and\r\nit ran perfectly.\r\n\r\n\"dashboard\r\n\r\nHowever the coolest bit is the ability to\u00a0'bid' for Amazon spot\r\ninstances<\/a>.\u00a0 StarCluster\r\nallows one to look at the spot instance price history over time to allow\r\nyou to make an informed bid in $\/hour.\u00a0 You can launch your cluster\r\nbased on this bid and as resources become available so your nodes are\r\nprovisioned.\u00a0 As long as your bid is (just) over the average price\r\nyou're pretty much guaranteed a reasonably priced compute cluster for as\r\nlong as you want.\r\n\r\n\"bid\"\r\n\r\nAbove is the current hourly value of an 8 core Nehalem server with two 2050 NVIDIA GPU cards.\r\n\r\nWe're now looking at ways to scale our current (and pending) infrastructure into this space.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve been playing about with Amazon Web Service cloud based
\ninfrastructure for the last few weeks and thought we’d share this. 
\nUsing StarCluster<\/a> and following this very cool demo<\/a> we launched a 3 node cluster
\non Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud infrastructure within the space of
\nabout 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

You’ll need an Amazon account (i.e. you give Amazon your credit card
\ndetails) and create a private key pair via their website.  You then
\nlaunch a small machine instance of StarCluster to act as the coordination
\n server.  Installation of StarCluster is a single command.  To configure
\n the ‘personality’ of the cluster one modifies the configuration file
\n(about 2 lines).  To set up permissions you need to copy your key to the
\n coordination server and reference this key in the config file.<\/p>\n

Starting the cluster is also one command, as is adding or deleting
\nnodes.  In about 5 minutes we had a head node and a worker node.  We decided to add a second worker node which took about 4 minutes.  StarCluster uses Oracle
\nGrid Engine and works in a very standard manner.  We were able to
\ncompile and submit an OpenMPI job in the space of about 60 seconds and
\nit ran perfectly.<\/p>\n

\"dashboard<\/p>\n

However the coolest bit is the ability to ‘bid’ for Amazon spot
\ninstances<\/a>.  StarCluster
\nallows one to look at the spot instance price history over time to allow
\nyou to make an informed bid in $\/hour.  You can launch your cluster
\nbased on this bid and as resources become available so your nodes are
\nprovisioned.  As long as your bid is (just) over the average price
\nyou’re pretty much guaranteed a reasonably priced compute cluster for as
\n long as you want.<\/p>\n

\"bid\" <\/p>\n

Above is the current hourly value of an 8 core Nehalem server with two 2050 NVIDIA GPU cards.<\/p>\n

We’re now looking at ways to scale our current (and pending) infrastructure into this space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAWS and MIT's StarCluster - UCT HPC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/index.php\/2012\/11\/02\/aws-and-mits-starcluster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AWS and MIT's StarCluster - UCT HPC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We've been playing about with Amazon Web Service cloud based infrastructure for the last few weeks and thought we'd share this.  Using StarCluster and following this very cool demo we launched a 3 node cluster on Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud infrastructure within the space of about 10 minutes. You'll need an Amazon account (i.e. you give Amazon your credit card details) and create a private key pair via their website.  You then launch a small machine instance of StarCluster to act as the coordination server.  Installation of StarCluster is a single command.  To configure the 'personality' of the cluster one modifies the configuration file (about 2 lines).  To set up permissions you need to copy your key to the coordination server and reference this key in the config file. Starting the cluster is also one command, as is adding or deleting nodes.  In about 5 minutes we had a head node and a worker node.  We decided to add a second worker node which took about 4 minutes.  StarCluster uses Oracle Grid Engine and works in a very standard manner.  We were able to compile and submit an OpenMPI job in the space of about 60 seconds and it ran perfectly.However the coolest bit is the ability to 'bid' for Amazon spot instances.  StarCluster allows one to look at the spot instance price history over time to allow you to make an informed bid in $\/hour.  You can launch your cluster based on this bid and as resources become available so your nodes are provisioned.  As long as your bid is (just) over the average price you're pretty much guaranteed a reasonably priced compute cluster for as long as you want. Above is the current hourly value of an 8 core Nehalem server with two 2050 NVIDIA GPU cards.We're now looking at ways to scale our current (and pending) infrastructure into this space.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/index.php\/2012\/11\/02\/aws-and-mits-starcluster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UCT HPC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-02T14:01:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-26T18:24:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/starcluster.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrew Lewis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew Lewis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/index.php\/2012\/11\/02\/aws-and-mits-starcluster\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/index.php\/2012\/11\/02\/aws-and-mits-starcluster\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Andrew Lewis\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/#\/schema\/person\/c183ad1c0a1063124a72d63963ae9c7e\"},\"headline\":\"AWS and MIT’s StarCluster\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-02T14:01:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-26T18:24:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/index.php\/2012\/11\/02\/aws-and-mits-starcluster\/\"},\"wordCount\":313,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"hpc\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/index.php\/2012\/11\/02\/aws-and-mits-starcluster\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ucthpc.uct.ac.za\/index.php\/2012\/11\/02\/aws-and-mits-starcluster\/\",\"name\":\"AWS and MIT's StarCluster - 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You'll need an Amazon account (i.e. you give Amazon your credit card details) and create a private key pair via their website.  You then launch a small machine instance of StarCluster to act as the coordination server.  Installation of StarCluster is a single command.  To configure the 'personality' of the cluster one modifies the configuration file (about 2 lines).  To set up permissions you need to copy your key to the coordination server and reference this key in the config file. 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