Method 1: Purchasing an HPC Cluster

Scenarios

If you want to use new cloud servers to deploy an HPC cluster, perform operations in this section.

Notes

• When you use VPC for the first time, the system automatically creates a VPC for you, including a default security group and NIC. You can also create a VPC by yourself. For more information about VPC, see Virtual Private Cloud User Guide.
• You can use the default security group provided by the system or create a security group by yourself.

  To allow secure access to cloud servers in the cluster, ensure that port 22 in the security group rule is open. For details, see Adding a Security Group Rule.

• Scalable File Service (SFS) is used for shared file access spanning cloud servers. For more information about SFS, see Scalable File Service User Guide.

Procedure

1. Log in to the HPC-S² console.
2. Click in the upper left corner and select your region and project.
3. Click Buy HPC Cluster.

   The Buy HPC Cluster page is displayed.

4. Select a billing mode, Yearly/Monthly or Pay-per-use.
   • Yearly/Monthly: Specify a required duration. The system will deduct the fees incurred from your account based on the service price.
     NOTE:

     Yearly/Monthly cloud servers cannot be deleted. You can only unsubscribe from them. If such a cloud server is no longer needed, go to the corresponding service console to unsubscribe from it.

   • Pay-per-use: You do not need to set a required duration because the system will deduct the fees incurred from your account based on the service duration.
5. Select a region.

   Cloud servers in different regions cannot communicate with each other over an intranet. For low network latency and quick resource access, select the nearest region.

6. Select an AZ.

   An AZ is a physical location that uses an independent power supply and network. AZs in the same region can communicate with each other over an intranet.

   • To enhance high availability of applications, create cloud servers in different AZs.
   • To shorten network latency, create cloud servers in the same AZ.
7. Configure the master node.
   • Flavor: Select a flavor from the drop-down list.
   • System Disk: Select a disk type and set the disk size.
     NOTE:

     Before selecting a cloud server flavor, familiarize yourself with the cloud server types. For details, see ECS Types.

8. Configure compute nodes.
   • Flavor: Select a flavor from the drop-down list.
   • System Disk: Select a disk type and set the disk size.
     NOTE:

     Before selecting a cloud server flavor, familiarize yourself with the cloud server types. For details, see ECS Types.

   • Quantity: You can deploy a maximum of 50 compute nodes in an HPC cluster.
9. Configure the network, including VPC, Security Group, and NIC settings.
   NOTE:

   • The EIP is bound to the master node.
   • When you use VPC for the first time, the system automatically creates a VPC for you, including a default security group and NIC.

   Table 1 Network parameters

   Parameter	Description
   VPC	A VPC provides a network, including subnets and security groups, for the cloud servers. Select an existing VPC or create one. For more information about VPC, see Virtual Private Cloud User Guide. NOTE: DHCP must be enabled in the VPC to which the cloud servers belong.
   Security Group	A security group controls access to the cloud servers in the group. By default, cloud servers in the same security group can access each other. The access from outside the security group is restricted by security group rules. You can define access rules for a security group to protect the cloud servers that are added to this group. For details, see Adding a Security Group Rule. Enable protocols and ports as needed. Common protocols and ports are as follows: Port 80: default port for web page access through HTTP. Port 443: web page access through HTTPS. ICMP: checks communication statuses between cloud servers through ping operations. Port 22: reserved for logging in to a Linux cloud server using SSH. Port 3389: reserved for logging in to a Windows cloud server using SSH.
   NIC	Select a subnet from the drop-down list.
   EIP	An EIP is a static public IP address bound to a cloud server in a VPC. Using the EIP, the cloud server provides services externally. The following options are provided: Auto assign: The system automatically assigns an EIP with a dedicated bandwidth to the cloud server. The bandwidth is configurable. Use existing: An existing EIP will be assigned to the cloud server. The EIP is only bound to the master node.
   EIP Type	Dynamic BGP provides automatic failover and chooses the optimal path when a network connection fails.
   Bandwidth	This parameter is available only if EIP is set to Auto assign.
   Billed By	This parameter is available only if EIP is set to Auto assign. This parameter indicates the bandwidth billing mode of the purchased EIP. Two billing modes are as follows: Bandwidth: You will be billed based on the bandwidth size you set. Traffic: You will be billed based on the total traffic used.

10. Select an image.
    • Public image (recommended)

      A public image is a standard, widely used image. It contains an OS and preinstalled public applications and is available to all users. If a public image does not contain the application environments or software you need, you can use the public image to create a cloud server and then deploy required software as needed.

    • Private image

      A private image is an image that contains an OS or service data, pre-installed public applications, and the user's personal applications. Private images are only available to the users who created them. Using a highly-tailored private image to create cloud servers eliminates the need to manually configure multiple cloud servers repeatedly.

    • Shared image

      A shared image is a private image another user has shared with you.

    • Marketplace image

      The Marketplace is an online store where you can purchase third-party images that have the OS, application environments, and software preinstalled. You can use these images to deploy websites and application development environments in just a few clicks. No additional configuration is required.

11. Set Login Mode.
    Key pair is recommended because it features higher security than Password. If you select Password, ensure that the password meets complexity requirements to prevent malicious attacks.

    • Key pair

      A key pair will be used for cloud server login authentication. You can select an existing key pair or create one.

      NOTE:

      If you use an existing key pair, make sure that you have saved the key file locally. Otherwise, logging in to the cloud servers will fail.

    • Password

      A username and its initial password will be used for cloud server login authentication.

      The initial password of user root will be used for authenticating Linux login, while that of user Administrator will be used for authenticating Windows login. The password must meet the following requirements.

      Table 2 Password complexity requirements

      Item	Requirements	Example Value
      Password	Consists of 8 to 26 characters. Contains at least three of the following character types: Uppercase letters Lowercase letters Digits Special characters: $!@%-_=+[]:./^,{}? Cannot contain the username or the username spelled backwards. Cannot contain more than two characters in the same sequence as they appear in the username. (This requirement applies only to Windows cloud servers.)	YNbUwp!dUc9MClnv NOTE: The example password is generated randomly. Do not copy it for use.

      NOTE:

      The system does not periodically change the password. It is recommended that you change it regularly for security.

12. Set a cluster name.

    The name must comply with the naming rules in the following table.

    Table 3 Cluster naming rules

    Item	Requirements	Example Value
    Cluster name	Consists of 1 to 52 characters. Contains only letters, digits, hyphens (-), and periods (.). Cannot start or end with a hyphen (-) or period (.). Cannot contain consecutive hyphens (-) and periods (.) or the combination of them, for example, --, .., -., or .-.	hpc-001.p1

13. Select a file system.

    Available file systems are filtered and displayed in the drop-down list based on the network settings. If no files systems are available, you can create one and add it to the VPC specified in Table 1. For details, see Create a File System.

14. Select a scheduler.

    Currently, only the slurm and sge schedulers are available. The default one is slurm.

15. Confirm the configurations and click Buy Now. A page is displayed for you to confirm the order.
    • In Yearly/Monthly billing mode, after confirming the specifications and price of the order, agree to the service agreement, click Submit, and complete the payment as prompted.
    • In Pay-per-use billing mode, after confirming the specifications and price of the order, agree to the service agreement, and click Submit.
16. After the order is submitted or paid, the system returns back to the Clusters page, on which you can see that the cluster is in the Creating state. Wait until the cluster status changes to Running which indicates that the cluster is successfully created.

Follow-up Operations

View the cluster details, nodes, and shared storage, as instructed in Viewing HPC Clusters.