Virtualizing the Stampede2 Supercomputer with Applications to HPC in the Cloud

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to quickly create and scale a virtual HPC cluster mimicking Stampede2 on the cloud, enabling faster scientific computations and testing without impacting the original supercomputer.

Contribution

The authors develop a rapid deployment approach for an elastic virtual cluster that emulates Stampede2's environment, facilitating cloud bursting and testing.

Findings

Virtual cluster can be built in minutes on Jetstream

Performance on virtual cluster is comparable to Stampede2 for key applications

Virtual cluster reduces queue wait times and aids debugging

Abstract

Methods developed at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) are described and demonstrated for automating the construction of an elastic, virtual cluster emulating the Stampede2 high performance computing (HPC) system. The cluster can be built and/or scaled in a matter of minutes on the Jetstream self-service cloud system and shares many properties of the original Stampede2, including: i) common identity management, ii) access to the same file systems, iii) equivalent software application stack and module system, iv) similar job scheduling interface via Slurm. We measure time-to-solution for a number of common scientific applications on our virtual cluster against equivalent runs on Stampede2 and develop an application profile where performance is similar or otherwise acceptable. For such applications, the virtual cluster provides an effective form of "cloud bursting" with the potential to significantly improve overall turnaround time, particularly when Stampede2 is experiencing long queue wait times. In addition, the virtual cluster can be used for test and debug without directly impacting Stampede2. We conclude with a discussion of how science gateways can leverage the TACC Jobs API web service to incorporate this cloud bursting technique transparently to the end user.