Microsoft HPC Pack 2012

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HPC Pack 2012, Microsoft’s fourth-generation HPC solution and successor to Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Suite and HPC Pack 2008 R2, provides a comprehensive and cost-effective solution for harnessing the power of supercomputing. Out-of-the-box, world-class performance and scalability enable organizations of all sizes to rapidly deploy solutions ranging from personal HPC workstations to enterprise-level solutions spanning thousands of cores. Companies can take advantage of existing technology investments and employee skill sets to minimize TCO, optimize ROI, and make HPC resources easier to manage, augment, and extend to end users.

A familiar environment and rich tool-set empowers system administrators to deploy and manage powerful HPC solutions more easily; helps developers build HPC applications more quickly, and enables end users to access HPC resources using familiar Windows-based desktops and applications. Through its unique combination of performance, ease of use, and the ability to leverage existing technology investments, HPC Pack 2012 makes it easier and more affordable to put the power of supercomputing within reach of more analysts, engineers, and scientists, giving them the computational resources they need to make better decisions, fuel product innovation, speed research and development, and accelerate time to market.

HPC Pack 2012 is a combination of essential interfaces, utilities, and management infrastructure for creating a Windows-based HPC Cluster.

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Download Microsoft HPC Pack 2012 here.

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We have simplified the Windows Server 2012 product lineup and incorporated the higher memory limits from the HPC Edition in to the Windows Server 2012 Standard edition.

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Microsoft HPC Pack 2012 is available in English, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese. When installed on an edition of Windows that does not match the HPC Pack languages, the HPC Pack user interfaces will be displayed in English.

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HPC Pack 2012 includes all of the functionality previously available in the HPC Pack 2008 R2 Express, Enterprise, Workstation, and Cycle Harvesting editions.

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See What's new in Microsoft HPC Pack 2012.

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The HPC Pack is a free download that can be used with any Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter license.

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While the Microsoft HPC Pack 2012 software does not require CALs, and if you are using your Windows Server 2012 only to run HPC workloads there is a “CAL waiver.” If you are using other capabilities of your Windows Server operating system, you will need to comply with the licensing programs for that edition of Windows Server.

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You may choose to purchase Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Suite or the individual components, Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Edition, or Microsoft HPC Pack 2008 R2 Enterprise, separately.

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If you have Software Assurance on Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Suite, you will receive a license grant for Windows Server 2012 Standard edition. For each Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Suite (which includes both a Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC edition license and Microsoft HPC Pack 2008 R2 Enterprise software) you will receive one Windows Server 2012 Standard edition license. If you have Software Assurance on Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC edition or Microsoft HPC Pack 2008 R2 Enterprise, you will receive an additional Windows Server 2012 Standard edition that you can use while 11 also maintaining your rights to run your current HPC licenses. You will receive one Windows Server 2012 Standard edition license for every two Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC edition license or Microsoft HPC Pack 2008 R2 Enterprise licenses you have. If you have an odd number of Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC edition or Microsoft HPC Pack 2008 R2 Enterprise licenses, your grant will be based on rounding up to the next whole number.

You will continue to have the ability to run HPC workloads on your new Windows Server 2012 Standard edition license without needing a Windows Server CAL to access the server, but any other workloads that you decide to run on your new server will follow the standard Windows CAL licensing requirements.

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Windows Azure is a public flexible cloud-computing platform that offers on-demand, pay-as-you-go, access to highly scalable compute and storage resources with 99.99% uptime. Included with HPC Pack 2012 is the ability for a system administrator to include Windows Azure nodes as temporary cluster resources. The cost of running Windows Azure nodes depends on many factors including, but not limited to: size of the instance, data transfers and storage, and other contract terms. For more information on Azure options and pricing please visit the following website: Windows Azure Purchase Options.

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A single workstation can have the Compute Cluster Pack 2003 and HPC Pack 2012 client utilities installed allowing an administrator to manage a Compute Cluster Pakc 2003-based cluster or an HPC Pack 2012-based cluster. A separate machine running the HPC Pack 2008 or HPC Pack 2008 R2 client tools must be used to manage clusters running those versions. Using remote desktop to connect to a cluster’s head node is the suggested method for managing multiple cluster versions from a single workstation.

The HPC Pack 2012 client tools can be used for submitting jobs to a cluster running any version of the Compute Cluster or HPC Pack software.

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Microsoft HPC Pack 2012 support failover clustering services, included with Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter, to provide additional head nodes for improved cluster availability. Additional licenses and media for Microsoft SQL Server, Standard or Enterprise, will need to be acquired to utilize the database clustering services necessary to provide resiliency for the system databases used for management and job queuing.

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HPC Pack 2012 stores management and job queue information in a Microsoft SQL Server database. A minimum of Microsoft SQL Server Express, which is included, is required. If a customer requires head node failover or a management database greater than 10 GB, SQL Server Standard or Enterprise will be required.Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2012 are supposed, HPC Pack 2012 no longer supports SQL Server 2008.

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HPC Services for Excel is not supported on the Server Core installation option of the Windows Server 2012 operating system.

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Microsoft HPC Pack 2012 provides API-level backwards compatibility with Compute Cluster Pack, HPC Pack 2008, and HPC Pack 2008 R2. HPC Pack 2012 supports job submission from Compute Cluster Pack, HPC Pack 2008, and HPC Pack 2008 R2 client, including the command-line tools, the Job Manager, and the COM APIs. However, the pack client tools, including the Administrator Console, Job Manager, Command-Line Interface, and APIs, cannot be used to manage or submit jobs to a Compute Cluster Pack-based cluster. Additionally, PowerShell scripts written for HPC Pack 2008 or HPC Pack 2008 R2 are supported. Third-party applications using the APIs should be compatible with HPC Pack 2012. These applications may, however, require changes to run properly on Windows Server 2012. If you encounter problems running your application on Windows Server, you should consult your software vendor.

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No. All nodes in a cluster must be running the same version of the HPC Pack software.

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Yes. Please refer to the supported operating systems listed above.

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Side-by-side installation is not supported.

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Side-by-side installation of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Suite and Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 on the same computer is not supported. This includes Microsoft HPC Pack 2008 R2 client utilities.

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Make sure that your existing head node hardware and any third-party applications are certified to run Windows Server 2012.

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Please visit www.microsoft.com/hpc for more information.