Create a Parametric Sweep Job

Task 1 – Verifying Cluster State

In this task, you will verify that the nodes in your cluster are online.

1. Open the HPC 2008 R2 Cluster Manager application from Start | All Programs | Microsoft HPC Pack 2008 R2 | HPC Cluster Manager.

2. In the Cluster Manager application, enter the Node Management section and verify that the Windows Azure nodes in the cluster are online, as shown in Figure 2:

   Figure 2

   Verifying the State of the Windows Azure Nodes

Task 2 – Creating a Parametric Sweep Job

In this task, you will create a parametric sweep job for the CPU Spinner application.

1. In the Cluster Manager application, enter the Job Management section and click New Job… in the Actions pane as shown in Figure 3:

   Figure 3

   Create a New Job

2. In the New Job dialog, set the Job name to cpu spinner, as shown in Figure 4:

   Figure 4

   Settings the Name of the Job

3. Still in the New Job dialog, click the Edit Tasks option, click the arrow next to the Add button, and then click Parametric Sweep Task…, as shown in Figure 5:

   Figure 5

   New Parametric Sweep Task

4. In the Parametric Sweep Task dialog, enter the following information and then click OK:
   1. Task name: CPU Spinner task
   2. Start value: 1
   3. End value: 1000
   4. Command line: CPUSpinner.exe *

   5. Working Directory: %CCP_PACKAGE_ROOT%\CPUSpinner

      Figure 6

      Setting the Parametric Sweep Task Details

5. Click the ResourceSelection option, check the Run this job only on nodes that are members of all the following groups checkbox, and then add the AzureNodes group, as shown in Figure 7:

   Figure 7

   Selecting Node Groups for the Job

6. Click the Environment Variables option, click the Add button, fill in the following information, and click OK:
   1. Name: SpinDurationMilliseconds

   2. Value: 5000

      Figure 8

      Add an Environment Variable to the Job

7. Click the Submit button to start the parametric sweep job.

8. While the job is running, enter the Job Management section, select the CPU Spinner job from the active jobs, and click on View Job… in the Actions pane, as shown in Figure 9:

   Figure 9

   View Running Job Information

9. The View Job dialog displays the current state of the job, as shown in Figure 10:

   Figure 10

   Running Job’s State

10. Click the Refresh button every couple of seconds to see the change in the number of finished tasks.

11. Select the View Tasks option, select one of the tasks, and inspect the output of the CPU Spinner console application, as shown in Figure 11:

    Figure 11

    Output of the CPU Spinner Application