Achieving Order Through CHAOS: The LLNL HPC Linux Cluster Experience

Overview

Livermore Computing Linux clusters run a common software environment that is developed and maintained in-house while drawing components and additional support from the open source community and industrial partnerships. The environment is based on Red Hat Linux and adds kernel modifications, cluster system management, monitoring and failure detection, resource management, authentication and access control, development environment, and parallel file system. The overall strategy has been successful and demonstrates that world-class high-performance computing resources can be built and maintained using commodity off-the-shelf hardware and open source software.