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Cluster Administration ToolkiT and UtilitieS


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Redefining Efficiency in Cluster Deployment

Introducing OpenCattus, an open-source cluster deployment system forged from real-world industry expertise. Developed by Versatus HPC-a company specializing in building, deploying, and managing High-Performance Computing (HPC) clusters-OpenCattus represents the culmination of years of hands-on experience and collaboration with leading manufacturers like Dell Technologies and Lenovo. By open-sourcing parts of their internal toolkit, Versatus HPC brings enterprise-level cluster management solutions to organizations of all sizes and industries.

So we needed to do something about it, therefore OpenCATTUS emerged.


Product Foundation

A solid base built with upstream components to ensure a stable and secure lifecycle


Enterprise Linux

System

Standardized on Enterprise Linux as the default Linux distribution, enabling us to provide nearly identical environments for customers with or without upstream support.

xCAT

Provisioner

At the core of the product lies the xCAT provisioning software. We've implemented custom modifications to make the provisioner more enterprise-friendly, including numerous enhancements to security features and the ability to integrate with third-party tools.

OpenHPC

Common HPC foundation

We leverage community contributions to provide a solid foundation for running scientific applications that are standard and well-known in the HPC field. With enhancements and tight integration of additional custom packages, utilizing these components is extremely easy without breaking upstream compatibility.

Third-Party Components

Everything else

A wealth of third-party components enhances the usability of the product, ranging from core features such as complete domain and identity management to optional features like document composition with LaTeX built into the system.

What does the product offer?

  • Support for Enterprise Linux with Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • Minimal firewall configuration enabled by default to protect the machine exposed to the outside
  • Creation of trust zones
  • Specific security policies in public zones
  • SELinux applied and enabled on the management machine
  • Custom rules made specifically for the system. We don't just set everything as public_content_rw_t.
  • Proper configuration of security features like brute-force blockers and SSH hardening
  • Identity, Policy, and Auditing with FreeIPA / Red Hat Identity Manager to enforce rules on users and hosts
  • Proper handling of user and host SSH keys included in the LDAP directory
  • Easy sudoers configuration with custom policies per user
  • Integrated PKI to certify all services in the cluster environment
  • Support for hiding processes within the proc filesystem to protect user privacy in the cluster environment
  • Integration of xCAT with FreeIPA/IdM to manage DNS domain zones
  • Integration of customized OFED distributions with OpenHPC packages
  • Custom SELinux policies tailored for xCAT with permissions only for the necessary filesystem scopes
  • Use of OpenHPC compilers and tools in our extended version of the Spack packaging system
  • Network Time Protocol service that powers the entire HPC environment without conflicts between services
  • SSH host-based authentication between compute nodes with host keys stored within the FreeIPA directory
  • Integration of OpenHPC's network filesystem requirements with FreeIPA's automount functionalities
  • Custom Zabbix templates for compute nodes sent and enabled by default
  • Local Postfix mail service with proper Kerberos SPN integration with FreeIPA/IdM
  • Fully integrated stateless compute images with identity services and generated with proper configuration
  • Encapsulation of procedures with Ansible Playbooks to avoid misuse and human errors
  • Dell OpenManage already integrated with the provisioner's remote BMC capabilities

Terminal User Interface (TUI)

Why should you consider it?

# OpenCATTUS OpenHPC Rocks Clusters Commercial Offering
Easy to Install Yes No Yes Yes
LVM Rollback Yes No No No
Pre-configured Repositories Yes No No Yes
Multiple Networks Yes Yes Yes Yes
Firewall with Custom Rules Yes No Yes Yes
Certificate Management End of year No No Yes
SELinux End of year No No No
Security Enhancements on Headnode Yes No No Yes
Identity Management Early 2025 Unix Files By Default Unix Files By Default LDAP Only
Stateless Nodes Yes Yes No Troublesome
Multiple OFED Stacks End of year No Custom Rolls Yes
Automount End of year No Yes No
Host-based SSH Authentication End of year No Yes No
NFSv4 with RDMA End of year No No No
Integrated DNS in Directory Early 2025 No No No
Opensource Components Yes Yes Yes No
HPC Containers Yes Yes No No
Support for Bundled Apps Yes Community Community No
Multiple Schedulers Yes Yes Yes Yes
Opensource Monitoring Early 2025 Unstable Yes No
Pre-configured Postfix MTA Yes No No No
Mirroring Tools for Repositories Yes No Partial No
Root account auditing Future No No No
Limit resources with cgroups Future No No Yes
Parallel filesystem install Future Only Clients No Yes
Health and Compliance check tool Future No Yes Yes
Advanced Queue System rules Future No No Yes