Win2008 HPC Cluster: User Management Raiders

There are two types of HPC cluster user roles: administrators and users. The HPC Cluster Administrator has the authority to manage all aspects of Windows HPC Server 2008. HPC cluster users have the authority to manage the tasks and jobs they submit to the cluster. Users or groups that have not been added to the cluster cannot access cluster resources.

You can set permissions for the job template you create to limit the job templates that a particular cluster user or group can use when submitting jobs to an HPC cluster. You can also set permissions for administrative job templates by granting permissions to edit, copy, and delete job templates to specific users or groups. For more information, see Setting job template permissions. You can only specify job template permissions for users or groups that have been added to the cluster as HPC cluster users or HPC cluster administrators.

(I) Understanding User Roles

There are two types of HPC cluster user roles:

Administrator. HPC Cluster Administrators have the authority to manage all aspects of Windows HPC Server 2008, including configuring HPC cluster networks, deploying and managing nodes, and configuring HPC Job Scheduler services. Cluster administrators can also submit and manage jobs, tasks, and job templates that are created or submitted to the cluster by other users in the cluster.

User. HPC cluster users have the authority to manage the tasks and jobs they submit to the cluster. If a job submitted by an HPC cluster user fails, this user can diagnose, repair, and resubmit the job. Although HPC cluster users can see jobs submitted by other users, they cannot delete them or resubmit them. In addition, HPC cluster users cannot view job details and tasks that are not their own submitted jobs.

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is a prerequisite for running Windows HPC Server 2008 because the authentication process for users and computers depends on the services provided by AD DS. Before installing Windows HPC Server 2008, if the computer to be used as the head node is added to the Active Directory domain, the "domain administrator" group will be added to the local "admin" group,"domain user" group Will be added to the local "user" group.

When installing, Windows HPC Server 2008 uses the local settings for users and groups on the head node to assign administrator and user permissions on the cluster. All members of the local "admin" group (including "domain administrator") will be added as HPC cluster administrators, and all members of the local "user" group (including "domain users") will act as HPC cluster users added.

Important

If you do not want all users in the domain to have access to the cluster, you can remove the "domain user" group from the HPC cluster user list and add it as an HPC cluster Other domain user groups that are specifically created by the user, or add a separate domain user.

HPC cluster users or HPC cluster administrators can be manually added in HPC Cluster Manager as long as they are not members of the "domain users" group or "domain administrator" group.

The HPC Cluster Administrator, as a member of the local "administrator" group for each node, is automatically propagated to all nodes in the cluster. HPC cluster users are also propagated in the same way as members of the local "user" group for each node.

(2) Adding or Removing Users and Administrators

If you want to grant cluster access to other members of your organization, you need to add them as a user or administrator to the cluster. Also, you can delete users or administrators that were added by default during installation.

Adding or removing users from a cluster

In the "Configuration" & navigation pane", click "Task list".

In the "Task List", click "Add or Remove User".

Add users to the cluster:

In the "Actions" pane, click "Add User". The "Select User or Group" dialog box will appear.

Type the username of the user you want to add, then click "Check Name". For more information, on the "Select User or Group" window, click "Example".

Repeat the previous steps for all users you want to add.

After adding the user, click "OK".

Add an administrator to the cluster:

In the "Actions" pane, click "Add Administrator". The "Select User or Group" dialog box will appear.

Type the username of the administrator you want to add, then click "Check Name". For more information, on the "Select User or Group" window, click "Example".

Repeat the previous steps for all administrators you want to add.

To delete a user or administrator, select it on the "Users" list, then in the "Actions" pane, click "Delete".

Additional considerations

You cannot remove a domain administrator account from the list of cluster administrators.

To open HPC Cluster Manager, click "Start", point to "All Programs", click "Microsoft HPC Pack", and then click "HPC Cluster Manager" . If the "User Account Control" dialog box appears, verify that what you are doing is displayed, then click "Continue".