HP XC System Software User's Guide Version 3.2

the HP XC. So, for example, if the HP XC system interconnect is based on a Quadrics® QsNet
II® switch, then the SFS will serve files over ports on that switch. The file operations are able to
proceed at the full bandwidth of the HP XC system interconnect because these operations are
implemented directly over the low-level communications libraries. Further optimizations of file
I/O can be achieved at the application level using special file system commands – implemented
as ioctls – which allow a program to interrogate the attributes of the file system, modify the
stripe size and other attributes of new (zero-length) files, and so on. Some of these optimizations
are implicit in the HP-MPI I/O library, which implements the MPI-2 file I/O standard.
File System Layout
In an HP XC system, the basic file system layout is the same as that of the Red Hat Advanced
Server 3.0 Linux file system.
The HP XC file system is structured to separate cluster-specific files, base operating system files,
and user-installed software files. This allows for flexibility and ease of potential upgrades of the
system software and keeps software from conflicting with user installed software. Files are
segregated into the following types and locations:
• Software specific to HP XC is located in /opt/hptc
• HP XC configuration data is located in /opt/hptc/etc
• Clusterwide directory structure (file system) is located in /hptc_cluster
Be aware of the following information about the HP XC file system layout:
• Open source software that by default would be installed under the /usr/local directory
is instead installed in the /opt/hptc directory.
• Software installed in the /opt/hptc directory is not intended to be updated by users.
• Software packages are installed in directories under the /opt/hptc directory under their
own names. The exception to this is third-party software, which usually goes in /opt/r.
• Four directories under the /opt/hptc directory contain symbolic links to files included in
the packages:
— /opt/hptc/bin
— /opt/hptc/sbin
— /opt/hptc/lib
— /opt/hptc/man
Each package directory should have a directory corresponding to each of these directories
in which every file has a symbolic link created in the /opt/hptc/ directory.
1.1.7 System Interconnect Network
The HP XC system interconnect provides high-speed connectivity for parallel applications. The
system interconnect network provides a high-speed communications path used primarily for
user file service and for communications within user applications that are distributed among
nodes of the system. The system interconnect network is a private network within the HP XC.
Typically, every node in the HP XC is connected to the system interconnect.
Table 1-2 indicates the types of system interconnects that are used on HP XC systems.
Table 1-2 HP XC System Interconnects
CP6000CP4000CP3000
XXQuadrics QSNet II®
XXMyrinet®
XXXGigabit Ethernet®
XXXInfiniBand®
26 Overview of the User Environment