Based either on commercially supported distributions (RedHat, SuSE) or open-source variants (CentOS, Scientific Linux, OpenSuSE), Linux HPC software stacks have recently matured into stable, comprehensive solutions that encompass the vast majority of application requirements. Professionally integrating open-source components with commercial applications, Alces Software delivers best-in-class, turn-key systems easing system management overhead and reducing the total cost of ownership for Linux clusters. With fully open-source and hybrid solutions available, we individually tailor your installation exactly to your requirements. Our stack is composed of the following components:

A standard Linux distribution
    ● Typically RedHat or a supported Open-source derivation (CentOS, Scientific Linux)*
    ● More familiar to most users than a bespoke, propitiatory Linux distribution
    ● Compatible with the greatest range of applications built for Linux
    ● Security updates readily available

Automated compute node software deployment tools
    ● Quickly and easily re-install the OS and software packages on individual nodes or groups of systems
    ● Simple solution for rebuilding repaired nodes or expanding the cluster in future
    ● Management GUI and scriptable command line interface
    ● NFS-based diskless boot option for compute nodes

Cluster management tools for controlling single or groups of nodes
    ● Real-time and historical cluster performance monitoring via a web GUI
    ● Remote power control and console access for diagnosing individual hardware or software issues
    ● Execute single commands simultaneously across the entire cluster with supplied command-line utilites
    ● Compute, interconnect and storage benchmark suites included

Cluster scheduler software to maximize utilization of your HPC cluster
    ● Choice of open-source packages (Grid Engine, OpenPBS, Torque) or commercial software*
    ● Fully integrated with installed message passing environments with best-practice methods
    ● Configured with your choice of user and job priorities

A comprehensive software development environment suited to your specific user base
    ● A wide selection of message passing environments including OpenMPI, OpenMP, MVAPICH
    ● Commercial or open-source C, C++ and Fortran compiler suites appropriate to your chosen Linux distribution*
    ● Accelerated mathematics libraries optimized for the target hardware (e.g. ATLAS, BLAS, LAPACK, FFTW)*
    ● GPGPU programming environments for specialist devices (e.g. Nvidia CUDA*)
    ● Environment management utilities to allow users to quickly and easily select different package combinations