Terminology

Node

• A node is the basic building block of a cluster.

• Nodes are a type of computer called a server.

  • They generally have more power than a typical computer.
  • They may have specialty hardware like graphical processing units.

• Two types of nodes

  • Head Node – a server used for logging in and submitting jobs.
  • Compute Node -- a server that carries out the computational work.

Core – an individual processor on a computer

• Rivanna’s nodes have many cores (typically 40 each)

Memory

• The random-access memory on a node

Storage

• Disk storage visible from a node