HPC Server Basic Profile Web Service Operations Guide

Applies To: Windows HPC Server 2008, Windows HPC Server 2008 R2

Important

The HPC Basic Profile Web Service is deprecated as of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and is no longer supported as of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 with SP3, and further updates are not planned. Instead, use the Web Service Interface, which was introduced with HPC Pack 2008 R2 SP2. For information about the Web Service Interface and the enhancements available in Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 with SP3, see Working with the Web Service Interface.

Interoperability between different operating systems and job schedulers is a key requirement in many high-performance computing (HPC) deployments. Windows® HPC Server 2008 supports a Web service-based standard from the Open Grid Forum (OGF), the High Performance Computing Basic Profile, that provides access to the HPC Job Scheduler Service using a web service protocol. Using a suitable client, you can access Windows HPC Server 2008 resources from other languages and operating systems.

Note

For information about how to use a client application to connect to the HPC Basic Profile Web Service, see Creating Clients that Connect to the HPC Basic Profile Web Service (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=128113).

The HPC Basic Profile Web Service is installed by default on the head node of your Windows HPC Server 2008 cluster, but the service is not activated by default. Before activating the service, you must ensure that you have a certificate available to secure the service. For more information about how to secure the service, see Securing the HPC Basic Profile Web Service. To activate and configure the service, see Commission and Decommission the HPC Basic Profile Web Service.

In this section:

• Securing the HPC Basic Profile Web Service

• Commission and Decommission the HPC Basic Profile Web Service

• Verify Activation of the HPC Basic Profile Web Service

• Start and Stop the HPC Basic Profile Web Service

• Understanding Configuration Options for the HPC Basic Profile Web Service

• Using Log Files to Monitor and Troubleshoot the HPC Basic Profile Web Service

The Open Grid Forum and the HPC Basic Profile

The Open Grid Forum (OGF) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=128196) is a standards setting organization and community forum that represents HPC, Grid, and e-Science communities. The HPC Profile Working Group within the OGF developed the HPC Basic Profile specification (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=128197) to satisfy some common HPC Job Scheduling use cases (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=128198).

The HPC Basic Profile uses core web service specifications (such as Extensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL), and WS-Security) to define a service interface to securely submit, manage, and monitor jobs. This service interface is called the Basic Execution Service (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=128199) and uses an XML-based abstraction of a job based on the Job Submission Description Language (JSDL) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=128200).

The HPC Profile Working Group extended JSDL to support simple HPC applications. For more information, see JSDL HPC Profile Application Extension, Version 1.0 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=128201).

The working group is developing extensions to the HPC Basic Profile to support interoperable file staging for HPC jobs, retrieving information about a job or a cluster, and integration with enterprise authentication schemes. Together, these extensions will help HPC Basic Profile-enabled resources integrate into cross-platform job schedulers.