CfnCluster - HPC for the Cloud

CfnCluster ("cloud formation cluster") is a framework that deploys and maintains high performance computing clusters on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Developed by AWS, CfnCluster facilitates both quick start proof of concepts (POCs) and production deployments. CfnCluster supports many different types of clustered applications and can easily be extended to support different frameworks. The CLI is stateless, everything is done using CloudFormation or resources within AWS.

Quick Start

First, install the library:

$ pip install cfncluster

Next, configure your aws credentials and default region:

$ aws configure
AWS Access Key ID [None]: YOUR_KEY
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: YOUR_SECRET
Default region name [us-east-1]:
Default output format [None]:

Then, run cfncluster configure:

$ cfncluster configure
Cluster Template [default]:
AWS Access Key ID []:
AWS Secret Access Key ID []:
Acceptable Values for AWS Region ID:
    ap-south-1
    ...
    us-west-2
AWS Region ID [us-east-1]:
VPC Name [myvpc]:
Acceptable Values for Key Name:
  keypair1
  keypair-test
  production-key
Key Name []:
Acceptable Values for VPC ID:
  vpc-1kd24879
  vpc-blk4982d
VPC ID []:
Acceptable Values for Master Subnet ID:
  subnet-9k284a6f
  subnet-1k01g357
  subnet-b921nv04
Master Subnet ID []:

Now you can create your first cluster;

$ cfncluster create myfirstcluster

After the cluster finishes creating, log in:

$ cfncluster ssh myfirstcluster

You can view the running compute hosts:

$ qhost

For more information on any of these steps see the Getting Started Guide.

Documentation

Documentation is part of the project and is published to - https://cfncluster.readthedocs.io/. Of most interest to new users is the Getting Started Guide - https://cfncluster.readthedocs.io/en/latest/getting_started.html.

Issues

Please open a GitHub issue for any feedback or issues: https://github.com/awslabs/cfncluster. There is also an active AWS HPC forum which may be helpful:https://forums.aws.amazon.com/forum.jspa?forumID=192.

Changes

CfnCluster 1.6 IAM Change

Between CfnCluster 1.5.3 and 1.6.0 we made a change to the CfnClusterInstancePolicy that adds “s3:GetObject” permissions on objects in <REGION>-cfncluster bucket, "autoscaling:SetDesiredCapacity", "autoscaling:DescribeTags" permissions and "cloudformation:DescribeStacks" permissions on <REGION>:<ACCOUNT_NAME>:<STACK_NAME>.

If you’re using a custom policy (e.g. you specify "ec2_iam_role" in your config) be sure it includes this new permission. See https://cfncluster.readthedocs.io/en/latest/iam.html

CfnCluster 1.5 IAM Change

Between CfnCluster 1.4.2 and 1.5.0 we made a change to the CfnClusterInstancePolicy that adds “ec2:DescribeVolumes” permissions. If you’re using a custom policy (e.g. you specify "ec2_iam_role" in your config) be sure it includes this new permission. See https://cfncluster.readthedocs.io/en/latest/iam.html

CfnCluster 1.2 and Earlier

For various security (on our side) and maintenance reasons, CfnCluster 1.2 and earlier have been deprecated. AWS-side resources necessary to create a cluster with CfnCluster 1.2 or earlier are no longer available. Existing clusters will continue to operate, but new clusters can not be created.