0

Absolutely zero experience when it comes to server related problems, but one has arisen at work.

We have a server with 64 CPUs (dont know the number of logical cores), 150GB+ RAM and 30TB of disk space. We have 5 clients attached to the server and the clients all have an application installed on it and reference the server for the data used within the application. The application itself has a very useful functionality that can either:

  • Use available GPUs to perform calculations
  • Use the CPU(s) to perform calculations

The clients have a single GPU each and a single CPU (32 logical cores). If we push the work to the GPU, it works but isn't timely; further we can pretty much kiss doing any other work goodbye since the displays cannot render and calculate simultaneously on the GPU. If we push the work the CPU, same issue with less of a delay in rendering.

The question came up: why not run the application on the server to leverage its specs?

The server runs on RedHat Linux, the application has support for this. Obviously nobody who reads this will know the nitty-gritty details, but in theory:

Is it possible/feasible to install an application on a server and run it from clients?

Not sure of general practice here, just doing some research.

pstatix
  • 111
  • 2

1 Answers1

0

The question came up: why not run the application on the server to leverage its specs?

The server runs on RedHat Linux, the application has support for this.

If the application that is being used has an installation candidate for RedHat, then yes, you can install the app onto the server for whatever is you're doing.

Is it possible/feasible to install an application on a server and run it from clients?

No. If it's installed on the Server, it will run on the server and use the server's hardware. Unless this is a distributed computing application designed to harness the power of other systems, it's going to run on the hardware the app is running on.

If we push the work to the GPU, it works but isn't timely; further we can pretty much kiss doing any other work goodbye since the displays cannot render and calculate simultaneously on the GPU. If we push the work the CPU, same issue with less of a delay in rendering.

Your server would likely become unusable for anything OTHER than this application. It sounds like this application is EXTREMELY computationally intensive, so it's not going to likely do anything but this.

If you're hoping to get more out of the product, you may want to work with the Vendor to figure out what the best approach would be to use it. I would be shocked if they didn't have any information on how to make the most of their own software.

Community
  • 1
Andrew
  • 2,142
  • 2
  • 19
  • 25
  • By "run it from the clients" I meant that our clients are connected to the server and the clients are RedHat Linux as well. If the application is installed on the server, and we can navigate to the .exe, can we run it on the server such that the GUI and what have you displays on the client? Or at a minimum just run the .exe and have it execute on the server? – pstatix Mar 09 '18 at 14:48
  • You're more likely to experience that running the software on the server, it will run on the server with no interaction to the client. But you really should talk to the vendor on this, since they're going to have all of the ways they offer to run the software. – Andrew Mar 09 '18 at 14:53