Run Lizard in Express Tuning Mode
Applies To: Microsoft HPC Pack 2008, Microsoft HPC Pack 2008 R2, Microsoft HPC Pack 2012, Windows HPC Server 2008, Windows HPC Server 2008 R2
If you do not have experience running the LINPACK Benchmark, or if you want Lizard to handle all the initial tuning parameters for you, you can run Lizard in express tuning mode. In express tuning mode, the LINPACK Benchmark is first run using default values for the tuning parameters, and the tuning process starts to run immediately without any configuration required on your part.
Important
Depending on the size and other characteristics of your HPC cluster, Lizard can take several hours to complete. Also, resources on your HPC cluster will be used to their limit. Running Lizard can maximize CPU and network load, and thus greatly increase power consumption. For these reasons, we recommend that you run Lizard while your HPC cluster is not being used for other computational tasks.
Note
You might want to run Lizard in advanced tuning mode if you know the values of the initial parameters that should be used for the LINPACK Benchmark so that peak performance can be more efficiently calculated (for example, if you have ran Lizard in the past and saved an output file). Also, in advanced tuning mode you can specify a different LINPACK binary to use, select the HPC cluster and nodes to include, or adjust the tuning procedure. For information about running Lizard in advanced tuning mode, see Run Lizard in Advanced Tuning Mode.
Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure.
To run Lizard in express tuning mode
On the head node of your HPC cluster, run Lizard as administrator. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Allow.
On the Getting Started page, click Next.
On the Select Tuning Mode page, click Express Tuning.
If the head node of your HPC cluster is configured to also act as a compute node and you want to include it in the tuning process, select the If the head node is also a compute node, include it in the tuning process check box.
Note
It is highly recommended, however, that you do not include a head node that is also configured to act as a compute node in the tuning process. When you include such a node in the tuning process, the LINPACK Benchmark, Lizard, and HPC Job Scheduler Service all compete with each other for CPU cycles on the head node. This competition for CPU cycles can ruin the LINPACK measurement and greatly increase the amount of time Lizard takes to run. If you select this option and the head node of your HPC cluster is not configured as a compute node, Lizard will not be able to include it in the tuning process, but it will continue to run including only the available compute nodes.
To start the tuning process, click Next.
Important
If the Processor Information dialog box appears, type the number of floating-point operations per clock cycle that the CPU on your head node computer can perform, and then click Save. For more information, see Provide Processor Information.
Note
To view detailed information about the tuning process while the tuning process is running, click Go To Detailed View. You can go back to the original view at any time by clicking Return to Simple View.