2 page Case Study - Posted 11/16/2009

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EURO/CFD

Industrial Simulation Firm Boosts Compute Speeds by 20 Percent with Cluster Upgrade

EURO/CFD, which provides digital simulation of fluid mechanics and heat transfer, recently expanded its computing infrastructure and upgraded to the Windows® HPC Server 2008 operating system for its 37-node cluster. EURO/CFD can now launch simulations on 20 server computers simultaneously. With the resulting 20-percent increase in computation speed, EURO/CFD has gained a competitive edge by delivering detailed, accurate information for customers.

Business Needs

EURO/CFD provides computational fluid dynamics–based digital simulations that help customers in a range of industries to improve their operations, such as running thermal power stations and nuclear submarines. For example, EURO/CFD might be asked to model a seawater pumping station to minimize the creation of whirlpools, optimize alternator cooling in a reactor, and even study intake and exhaust from gas turbines.

Many of the company’s customers are large industrial groups that either find themselves temporarily overloaded with simulation work or unwilling to pay the high cost of maintaining a permanent design engineering team. “No matter their situation, they’re in a hurry,” says Karim Loueslati, Director of EURO/CFD. “Our customers need results in less than a month and at a reasonable cost.”

We’ve certainly found that Windows HPC Server 2008 can successfully compete with the performance of open-source solutions for high-performance computing while helping conserve operating costs. Karim Loueslati Director, EURO/CFD

For those 25 computers, EURO/CFD chose to install Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, which meant that the company suddenly had the equivalent power of 100 processors. However, EURO/CFD wanted a high-performance computing (HPC) solution that would include an integrated job scheduler with a more complete feature set. With Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, the company’s employees had to list available processors on a whiteboard and manually assign jobs to them. “It wasn’t difficult,” recalls Loueslati. “Our design engineers handled it just fine, and it didn’t prevent us from getting contracts, but we wanted a more sophisticated solution that could support the fast execution of increasingly complex simulations.”

Solution

As the company continued to require more processing power, EURO/CFD met the release of the Windows HPC Server 2008 operating system with interest. Among other things, the newer high-performance computing solution included an integrated Job Scheduler with a more complete feature set. The company turned to ClusterVision, a partner that specializes in integrating server computer clusters, for expert help in defining a migration path. ClusterVision also tested Windows HPC Server 2008 to validate that the operating system would scale to accommodate the increasing demands of EURO/CFD.

Pleased with the results of initial tests, EURO/CFD asked ClusterVision to migrate its existing computers to Windows HPC Server 2008 and install 12 additional servers. “Windows HPC Server 2008 is like a new, more powerful car,” says Loueslati. “When you try it, you can tell right away that it’s different from the old model.”

EURO/CFD now has a cluster of 37 biprocessor machines with dual and quad cores, and it was even able to integrate an octo-core server. The company also upgraded the communications platform for the cluster, moving from a gigabit Ethernet network to an InfiniBand fiber optic network that can quickly be increased from 20 gigabits per second to 100, if needed. The company uses its Windows HPC Server 2008 cluster to run simulation and measurement applications, such as ANSYS Fluent and ANSYS CFX.

Of course, EURO/CFD could have chosen to move its high-performance computing cluster to Linux, but the company dismissed that option without hesitation. “With Windows HPC Server 2008, we remain aligned with the majority of our customers, who use Windows desktop software,” says Loueslati. “It’s a real advantage that we can easily share files, results, our networks, and our applications with them.”

Benefits

EURO/CFD has invested in a high-performance computing infrastructure that can grow with the company and its processing demands. EURO/CFD already has experienced decreases in its processing times; as a result, its engineers have more time to test different hypotheses, thereby creating more-accurate simulations and happier customers. For EURO/CFD, the benefits of adopting Windows HPC Server 2008 include:

• Improved processing time and capabilities. EURO/CFD now has the ability to speed up its calculations, which means that the company can handle greater quantities of work and be more responsive to customers. “Moving to Windows HPC Server 2008 will save us 20 percent of the time necessary to complete large calculations,” says Loueslati. “We now can launch simulations on 20 nodes simultaneously—we’ve moved from a manual, small-scale operation to an industrial process.”
  
  
• More cost-effective solution. By relying on Windows HPC Server 2008 to run its business, EURO/CFD saves money over competing systems. “We were able to avoid the need for an expensive network engineer, which would not have been the case with Linux,” says Loueslati. “We’ve certainly found that Windows HPC Server 2008 can successfully compete with the performance of open-source solutions for high-performance computing while helping conserve operating costs.”
  
  
• Ability for deeper analysis. EURO/CFD can now use the time that it saves on computations to conduct more-detailed studies for a particular project. “With Windows HPC Server 2008, design engineers’ ideas are magnified tenfold,” says John Morelle, Manager France for ClusterVision. “In essentially the same amount of time, they can study and compare up to 100 different hypotheses, instead of just two.”