Problem-solving in High Performance Computing

Preface

I have spent most of my Linux career counting servers in their thousands and tens of thousands, almost like a musician staring at the notes and seeing hidden shapes among the harmonics. After a while, I began to discern patterns in how data centers work – and behave. They are almost like living, breathing things; they have their ups and downs, their cycles, and their quirks. They are much more than the sum of their ingredients, and when you add the human element to the equation, they become unpredictable.

Managing large deployments, the kind you encounter in big data centers, cloud setup, and high-performance environments, is a very delicate task. It takes a great deal of expertise, effort, and technical understanding to create a successful, ...