xCAT is open-source

Open-source software

Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...

 distributed computing

Distributed computing

Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...

 management software used for the deployment and administration of clusters. It can:

• create and manage diskless clusters
• install and manage many Linux
  Linux
  Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
  
   cluster machines in parallel
• set up a high-performance computing software stack, including software for batch job submission, parallel libraries, and other software that is useful on a cluster
• cloning
  Disk cloning
  Disk cloning is the process of copying the contents of one computer hard disk to another disk or to an "image" file. Often, the contents of the first disk are written to an image file as an intermediate step, and the second disk is loaded with the contents of the image...
  
   and imaging
  Disk image
  A disk image is a single file or storage device containing the complete contents and structure representing a data storage medium or device, such as a hard drive, tape drive, floppy disk, CD/DVD/BD, or USB flash drive, although an image of an optical disc may be referred to as an optical disc image...
  
   Linux and Windows machines

xCAT has specific features designed to take advantage of IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

 hardware including:

• Remote Power Control
• Remote POST
  Power-on self-test
  Power-On Self-Test refers to routines run immediately after power is applied, by nearly all electronic devices. Perhaps the most widely-known usage pertains to computing devices...
  
  /BIOS
  BIOS
  In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....
  
   console
• Serial over LAN functions
• Hardware alerts and vitals provided via SNMP and email
  Email
  Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
  
  
• Inventory and hardware management

xCAT achieved recognition in June 2008 for having been used with the IBM Roadrunner, which set a computing speed

Instructions per second

Instructions per second is a measure of a computer's processor speed. Many reported IPS values have represented "peak" execution rates on artificial instruction sequences with few branches, whereas realistic workloads typically lead to significantly lower IPS values...

 record at that time..

xCAT is the default systems management tool of the IBM Intelligent Cluster

IBM System Cluster 1350

The IBM Intelligent Cluster is a cluster solution for High-performance computing composed primarily of IBM System x, IBM BladeCenter and IBM System Storage components integrated with network switches from various vendors and optional high-performance InfiniBand interconnects...

solution.

External links

• xCAT Home Page at Sourceforge