HPC clusters generally consist of two types of systems: Head Nodes and Compute Nodes. Head Nodes provide the management function for the cluster and typically run tasks such as workload schedulers, input/output management, hosting shared filesystems, login nodes, cluster authentication, etc. Compute Nodes, as the name implies, only provide the processing resources needed for the HPC workloads.

The key attribute of an HPC cluster is that all the systems are focused on performing compute or I/O intensive subtasks to solve a computation task that is larger than any single system can solve. The SUSE Terms and Conditions define which workloads and configurations are considered “HPC”.

SUSE has a single price strategy for HPC that uses the same product for both HPC Head Nodes and HPC Compute Nodes. We believe that a simple pricing model that applies to all HPC cluster systems is easier for everyone.

HPC environments might have a thousand systems to provide the resources necessary for solving complex problems. But these clusters are more homogeneous than a random collection of a thousand systems because all of the compute nodes are running identical copies of the operating system and running subtasks of a larger workload. As a result, the support costs for HPC are lower than for general purpose systems.

Operating Systems vendors traditionally charge less for subscriptions for HPC environments due to these lower support costs and because of the sheer number of systems involved. SUSE provides HPC specific products such as SLES for HPC or SLES for HPC with ESPOS to deliver SUSE Linux for HPC environments. Because SLES for HPC has unique prerequisites and restrictions, these products cannot be directly purchased by a customer; they must be purchased through a SUSE business partner or through a SUSE direct salesperson.

We also made significant price reductions as part of the overall changes to the SUSE HPC offering. We believe that these price reductions will encourage more organizations running HPC workloads to consider using SUSE Linux. The recent Meltdown and Spectre security issues have reinforced the need for customers to have a strong partner like SUSE that is able to respond to these kinds of problems quickly.

Long Term Service Pack Support (LTSS) for HPC provides customers with telephone support and fixes for critical system and security issues for up to three years beyond the end of the normal Service Pack overlap. LTSS for HPC can be purchased in one-year increments. The new LTSS for HPC can only be used to extend the life of a SLES for HPC subscription and customers must maintain the underlying SLES for HPC subscription in addition to the LTSS.

In summary, you can purchase these subscriptions for HPC clusters:

SLES for HPC can be purchased for new clusters or when renewing existing clusters. Customers can convert to SLES for HPC from a standard SLES subscription at renewal. Customers must have the same subscription, such as SLES for HPC with ESPOS, for all HPC nodes in a cluster. Customers cannot mix subscriptions with ESPOS with subscriptions that do not include ESPOS in a cluster. Similarly, customers must purchase LTSS for HPC for all nodes in the cluster.

For most HPC customers who need a longer support life, SLES for HPC with ESPOS is the most cost-effective approach because it provides up to 30 months of support for a service pack. SLES for HPC with ESPOS is less expensive than purchasing a standard 18-month subscription and adding one year of LTSS. Customers who need more than 30 months of support can always purchase the add-on LTSS support for the final two years after ESPOS support ends.