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--- skill-tree:k:1:1:b [2020/06/18 20:15] – external edit 127.0.0.1
+++ skill-tree:k:1:1:b [2022/10/21 14:53] (current) – ruben.kellner
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 # K1.1-B System Architectures
 # Background
-# Aim
-# Outcomes
+An HPC cluster is built out of a few up to many servers that are connected by a high-performance communication network.
+The servers are called nodes.
+HPC clusters use batch systems for running compute jobs.
+Interactive access is usually limited to a few nodes.
+A typical cluster contains of these parts:
   * various system-, hardware-, and I/O-architectures used for supercomputers, i.e. shared memory systems, distributed systems, and cluster systems
   * physical hardware; chassis/rack, computer system units, interconnect, power., compute node architecture with memory, local disk, and sockets
   * typical architecture of cluster systems consisting of nodes with different roles (e.g. so-called head, management, login, compute, interactive, visualization nodes, etc.)
+Which are functioning as:
+* **Login or gateway nodes** where you are on after logging into the cluster and where you can work interactively
+    * **Compute nodes** that are the workhorses of a cluster
+    * **Admin or system nodes** that work in the background necessary for the operation of the cluster, e.g. for running the batch service, or starting and shutting down compute nodes
+    * **Disk nodes** that provide global file systems, i.e. file systems that can be used on all other kinds of nodes
+    * **Special nodes** e.g. for data movement, visualization, or pre- and post-processing of large data sets
+    * **Head nodes** which can mean login or admin nodes used for management either by a user or an administrator
+# Aim
+  * To provide knowledge about the hardware components of an HPC cluster and their functions.
+# Outcomes
+  * Comprehend there are nodes with several functions
+  * Comprehend that nodes are connected by a high-performance communication network
+  * Comprehend that global file systems are available on all nodes of the cluster and are convenient because their files can be accessed directly on all nodes
+    * Quantitatively, parallel file systems offer higher I/O performance than classic network file systems
+    * Qualitatively, they allow several processes to write into the same file
+  * Comprehend the two purposes of the communication network
+    * Enabling high-speed data communication for parallel applications running on multiple nodes
+    * Providing a high-speed connection to the disk systems in the cluster
 # Subskills
   * [[skill-tree:k:1:1:1:b]]