documentation.suse.com / Administration Guide / Installation and upgrade
Applies to SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4

2 Installation and upgrade

  

SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing comes with preconfigured system roles for HPC. These roles provide a set of preselected packages typical for the specific role, and an installation workflow that configures the system to make the best use of system resources based on a typical use case for the role.

2.1 System roles for SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4

  

You can choose specific roles for the system based on modules selected during the installation process. When the HPC Module is enabled, the following roles are available:

HPC management server (head node)

This role includes the following features:

  • Uses Btrfs as the default root file system

  • Includes HPC-enabled libraries

  • Disables the firewall and Kdump services

  • Installs a controller for the Slurm workload manager

  • Mounts a large scratch partition to /var/tmp

HPC compute node

This role includes the following features:

  • Based on the minimal setup configuration

  • Uses XFS as the default root file system

  • Includes HPC-enabled libraries

  • Disables firewall and Kdump services

  • Installs a client for the Slurm workload manager

  • Does not create a separate /home partition

  • Mounts a large scratch partition to /var/tmp

HPC development node

This role includes the following features:

  • Includes HPC-enabled libraries

  • Adds compilers and development toolchains

The scratch partition /var/tmp/ is only created if there is sufficient space available on the installation medium (minimum 32 GB).

The environment module Lmod is installed for all roles. It is required at build time and runtime of the system. For more information, see Section 7.1, “Lmod — Lua-based environment modules”.

All libraries specifically built for HPC are installed under /usr/lib/hpc. They are not part of the standard search path, so the Lmod environment module system is required.

MUNGE authentication is installed for all roles. MUNGE keys are generated and must be copied to all nodes in the cluster. For more information, see Section 3.4, “MUNGE authentication”.

The system roles are only available for new installations of SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing.

2.2 Upgrading to SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4

  

You can upgrade to SLE HPC 15 SP4 from SLE HPC 15 SP3.