XCAT

XCAT
Original author(s)Egan Ford
Developer(s)Egan Ford, Jarrod Johnson, Bruce Potter, Andy Wray
Initial releaseOctober 31, 1999 (1999-10-31)
Stable release
2.16.5 / March 8, 2023; 21 months ago (2023-03-08)[1]
Repositorygithub.com/xcat2/xcat-core.git
Written inPerl, Python, Bash
Operating systemLinux, IBM AIX, Windows
PlatformCross-platform
Size5 MB
Available inEnglish
TypeDistributed computing
LicenseEclipse Public License
Websitexcat.org

xCAT (Extreme Cloud Administration Toolkit) is open-source distributed computing management software developed by IBM, used for the deployment and administration of Linux or AIX based clusters.

In September 2023 the primary developers of xCAT said that they moved onto other roles and could no longer work on it, asking the community if anyone would like to take over, as otherwise they planned to end-of-life the project on December 1, 2023.[2]


Toolkit

xCAT can:

  • Create and manage diskless clusters
  • Install and manage many Linux cluster machines (physical or virtual) 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 and imaging Linux and Windows machines

xCAT has specific features designed to take advantage of IBM hardware including:

  • Remote Power Control
  • Remote POST/BIOS console
  • Serial over LAN functions
  • Hardware alerts and vitals provided via SNMP and email
  • Inventory and hardware management

xCAT achieved recognition in June 2008 for having been used with the IBM Roadrunner, which set a computing speed record at that time.[3][4]

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

xCAT is used by Lenovo.

References

  1. ^ "Releases ยท xcat2/xcat-core". github.com. Retrieved 2023-10-24.
  2. ^ Besaw, Nathan A (2023-09-01). "Announcement: xCAT Project End-Of-Life planned for December 1, 2023". xCAT-user (Mailing list). Retrieved 2023-10-24.
  3. ^ "US energy department reveals world's fastest computer". Wikinews. 2008-06-10. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
  4. ^ "U.S. Department of Energy's New Supercomputer is Fastest in the World". US Department of Energy. 2008-06-09. Retrieved 2008-06-11.