HP Scalable Visualization Array Software - Manual (Page 21)

3 SVA Hardware and Software
This chapter provides information on the hardware and software that make up the SVA. It is a useful reference
for anyone involved in managing the SVA. It is also useful for anyone who wants to understand the hardware
that makes up the SVA and the software that is installed on it.
The SVA combines commodity hardware components with software that include the following:
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A cluster of Intel EM64T or AMD Opteron HP workstations as visualization nodes.
•
NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 3450 or NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 graphics cards with optional G-sync or
hardware SLI.
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InfiniBand, Gigabit Ethernet (GigE), or Myrinet system interconnects.
•
Third-party software tools and libraries.
•
Custom and enhanced software tools.
Hardware Component Summary
You can use the SVA with a variety of applications that run on distributed computing systems; in this case,
a cluster of Linux workstations. The SVA is a specialized version of the HP Cluster Platform systems; in this
case, based on HP ProLiant DL380 G4 and 385 G4 servers and xw8200 or xw9300 visualization nodes.
There are two SVA physical configurations:
Bounded configuration
Contains only visualization nodes and is limited in size to one to three
racks. The bounded configuration serves as a standalone visualization
cluster. It can be connected to a larger HP XC cluster via external
GigE connections. This level of inter-cluster integration supports
communication with a compute cluster and data retrieval from a file
share such as an HP Scalable File Share (SFS).
Modular, expandable system This configuration has two or more racks as needed to contain the
maximum number of supported nodes. It is based on HP Cluster
Platform building blocks. It can be exclusively visualization nodes or
be combined with compute nodes as part of an integrated HP Cluster
Platform system. When integrated into a larger Cluster Platform system,
the visualization nodes can use a high speed system interconnect to
load data from an HP SFS.
The two SVA physical configurations are built using one or more of three types of building blocks. Each
building block uses a single rack.
Utility Visualization Block (UVB) Base utility unit of a bounded physical configuration.
Utility Building Block (UBB) Base utility unit of a modular expandable system.
Visualization Building Block (VBB) Rack of visualization nodes that can be added to either base units.
The VBB contains a maximum of eight nodes.
A bounded physical configuration has the following components as summarized in Chapter 2 :
•
Display nodes.
•
Render nodes.
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Head node (found in HP Cluster Platform systems, and thus not unique to the SVA).
•
System Interconnect and Administrative Network (found in HP Cluster Platform systems, and thus not
unique to the SVA).
The head node is a typical node type found in HP Cluster Platform systems. SVA bounded configurations
support either a workstation (xw8200 or xw9300) or server (DL 380 or DL 385) as the head node. Modular
configurations support only a DL 380 or a DL 385 as the head node.
Figure 3-1 illustrates a sample bounded configuration. The UVB contains the network switches, PDU, five
visualization nodes, and the head node. The visualization nodes support a 2x2 multi-tile display. Additional
VBBs can be added to this configuration, with up to eight workstations in each rack.
Hardware Component Summary 21