In its simplest form, a cluster is two or more computers that work together to provide a solution. This should not be confused with a more common client- server model of computing where an application may be logically divided such that one or more clients request services of one or more servers. The idea behind clusters is to join the computing powers of the nodes involved to provide higher scalability, more combined computing power, or to build in redundancy to provide higher availability. So rather than a simple client making requests of one or more servers, clusters utilize multiple machines to provide a more powerful computing environment through a single system image.
An High-Performance Computing cluster typically has a large number of computers (often called nodes) and, in general, most of these nodes would be configured identically. The idea is that the individual tasks that make up a parallel application should run equally well on whatever node they are dispatched on.
However, some nodes in a cluster often have some physical and logical differences. In the following sub-sections we discuss logical node functions and then physical node types.
An High-Performance Computing cluster typically has a large number of computers (often called nodes) and, in general, most of these nodes would be configured identically. The idea is that the individual tasks that make up a parallel application should run equally well on whatever node they are dispatched on.
However, some nodes in a cluster often have some physical and logical differences. In the following sub-sections we discuss logical node functions and then physical node types.
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