Clustercorp Releases Rocks+ 5.0

Clustercorp announced the immediate availability of Rocks+ 5.0, which includes Rocks+Support, Rocks+Rolls and Rocks+Moab. Rocks+ is the commercial version of the widely used Rocks Cluster Distribution – an end-to-end HPCC software solution, which includes the operating system, cluster management middleware, libraries, and compilers; all with enterprise class commercial support from leaders in the Rocks community. Support for virtualization and a base of the 2.6.18 Linux kernel lead a long list of feature enhancements and upgrades in Rocks+ 5.0. Nodes can be added as virtual machine containers to hold Xen-based virtual machines (VMs). The Rocks Command Line, which was initially added in Rocks 4.3, was expanded to help build and maintain a robust HPCC infrastructure with simple human readable commands (e.g., “rocks create host vm compute-0-0-0″ is used to install a VM). Clustercorp’s complete line of modular add-ons (Rolls) has been updated for the new release. Rocks+Rolls 5.0 includes the Intel Developer Roll, Cisco-OFED Roll, Moab Roll, Absoft Roll, Panasas Roll, and the upcoming TotalView Roll. Clustercorp also supports open source Rolls including the Torque Roll and SGE (Sun Grid Engine) Roll. "We are delighted to see Clustercorp release Rocks+ 5.0 and their complete line of Rocks Rolls within just a few weeks of the final version of Rocks 5," said Philip Papadopoulos, PhD, head of the Rocks project at the University of California, San Diego. "Clustercorp founders are not only regular contributors to the open-source Rocks community, but their expanding collection of commercial software rolls clearly illustrates an excellent understanding of customers who need to mix both open source and commercial software to build robust solutions." Rocks+ is available to end-users direct from Clustercorp and through multiple channels, including Tier 1 HPCC hardware partners ( www.clustercorp.com/hardware ) and distributors. Rocks+ is also available to VARs and System Integrators through Tech Data Corporation’s Advanced Infrastructure Solutions Division (see below for procurement details). “Clustercorp is thrilled to begin shipping (and uploading) Rocks+ 5.0 to the ever expanding Rocks community,” said Tim McIntire, President and Cofounder of Clustercorp. “The launch is a culmination of efforts from the Rocks Cluster Group, Clustercorp, and our commercial partners; whose backing of Rocks is critical to the development of a complete HPC stack. We look forward to continuing our effort to make great HPC software easily accessible to the masses.” Rocks+Moab adds Cluster Resource’s enterprise class workload management tools and a rich graphical user interface to Rocks+ 5.0. Rocks+Moab has also been leveraged to deploy hybrid clusters (i.e. dual-boot Linux and Windows) and “green” solutions. “Organizations running Rocks+ 5.0 benefit greatly from the addition of the Rocks+Moab cluster solution package,” said Michael Jackson, President of Cluster Resources. “This pairing, which includes Moab Cluster Suite and TORQUE – offers guaranteed service levels to users and organizations, higher resource utilization rates, and the ability to process more jobs with the same resources, resulting in an improved ROI. “We are also very pleased to collaborate with Clustercorp in providing hybrid clusters which use Moab on Rocks+ to dynamically adapt between Windows and Linux compute environments based on workload; as well as green computing solutions which reduce power consumption, save money and help organizations reach their green computing objectives.”