Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/26/hp_cclass_express_cluster/
HP clusters up blade boxes
One rack: made to order
Posted in Servers, 26th April 2007 17:53 GMT
HP's clusters-in-a-can now come equipped with cClass blades.
Customers can purchase a Cluster Platform Express system with up to 48 nodes comprised of Xeon- and Opteron-based blade servers. HP also has both Infiniband and Gigabit Ethernet available for networking with these systems.
HP, and its main rivals, have been selling pre-packaged clusters for the last few years. The vendors claim to make life easier on customers by doing much of the cluster assembly and configuration work in-house and then shipping out a more complete package.
The Express version of HP's clusters center on just one-rack of systems, as opposed to the Unified Cluster line, which can combine hundreds of boxes.
HP offers a handy web site (http://h20311.www2.hp.com/HPC/cache/305547-0-0-0-121.html) for configuring the Express systems, allowing customers to pick from the blades or thin servers. HP also offers a broad range of operating systems with the clusters, including various flavors of Red Hat, SUSE and Windows. ®