Accelerating Excel 2010 with Windows HPC Server 2008 R2: Building VBA applications and workbooks for a Windows HPC Cluster

Note: Article and samples were updated for the RC release of Windows HPC 2008 R2. For more information about updating Excel solutions from Beta 2 to RC, see the Excel Workbook Offloading Beta Transition Guide.

HPC Services for Excel supports a variety of new programming models that allow you to run Excel calculations on an HPC cluster. In this article we’ll discuss how to use Excel VBA macros to build workbooks that utilize an HPC cluster to run calculations in parallel. To support HPC Services for Excel, your workbook needs to include a set of macros that implement the asynchronous functions. This article describes the macro framework and how to define calculations within the framework. This article includes walkthroughs of how to build a workbook from scratch, and of how to convert an existing workbook to run on a cluster.

The zipped file that is available in this download includes sample Excel 2010 workbooks and .bas files. The .bas files include skeleton macro files you can import into your workbooks to simplify the development process. The samples are referenced in the walkthrough sections of the article. For example, the ConvertiblePricing workbook is used to demonstrate how to convert an existing workbook to use the HPC macro framework.

Note: The workbooks contain macros. When you open the workbooks, you may see a security warning indicating that the macros have been disabled. You can enable the macros by clicking "Enable Content".

Note: Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose.

Windows HPC Server 2008

Microsoft Word of Word Viewer, Microsoft Excel 2010, Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 cluster