Using OSCAR to Win the Cluster Challenge

This paper discusses using OSCAR (open source cluster administration resource) to compete and win, in the first ever cluster challenge competition at supercomputing 2007. The cluster challenge invited teams of undergraduate students to assemble a cluster and compete for 44 hours on the conference floor. The teams competed in two main areas; (i) achieving the best results on the high performance computing challenge benchmark and (ii) who could complete the most of a selection of data sets for several common scientific applications. In the this document we explain why Team Alberta chose OSCAR, how we feel it contributed to our success and our experiences using it.