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Cloud Scaling Overview
An introduction to cloud scaling, a typical scaling setup and an overview of steps to set up cloud scaling.
Cloud Scaling Terminology
Definitions for terminology that is used to describe cloud scaling.

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New and updated features in Altair NavOps 2025.1.0.
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Cloud cost tracking, Automation based scalability, and Cloud migration for HPC.
Cloud Scaling Overview
An introduction to cloud scaling, a typical scaling setup and an overview of steps to set up cloud scaling.
- Cloud Scaling Terminology
  Definitions for terminology that is used to describe cloud scaling.
- Prerequisites for Cloud Scaling
  A cloud provider account, a licensed on-premise workload manager and a secure network connection must be in place before cloud scaling can be enabled. Optionally all the components can be deployed in the cloud if you do not have an on-prem HPC cluster.
- Cloud Scaling Startup Script
  Create a cloud-init script that is executed when the cloud node is deployed.
- Cost Center
  Cost centers provide visibility of expenditure to dynamically manage cloud operations and plan ahead. Cost centers are associated with node delpoyments. The limits defined in the cost center are checked before deploying nodes. The estimated costs accrued by cost centers are displayed visually as well as in a table.
Configure Amazon Web Service Cloud Scaling
Create the necessary components in AWS that are required for cloud scaling and then add your credential to NavOps before creating a cloud environment.
Configure Microsoft Azure Cloud Scaling
Create the necessary components in Microsoft Azure that are required for cloud scaling and then add your Credential to NavOps before creating a cloud environment.
Windows Deployment on AWS and Azure
Requirements for deploying Windows cloud nodes.
Configure Google Cloud Platform Cloud Scaling
Create the necessary components in GCP that are required for cloud scaling and then add your Credential to NavOps before creating a cloud environment.
Configure Oracle Cloud Scaling
Create the necessary components in Oracle Cloud that are required for cloud scaling and then add your Credential to NavOps before creating a cloud environment.
Configure Openstack for Cloud Scaling
Create the necessary components in OpenStack that are required for cloud scaling and then add your credential to NavOps before creating a cloud environment..
Add, Register, and Deploy a Cluster
After creating a cluster, it has to be registered by installing the NavOps CLI and agent. You can add node configurations containing custom resources and scripts and deploy the cluster.
Node Configurations
Node configurations enable you to customize a node associated with a cluster. Compared to operations performed via the cloud-init script these configurations are managed on the WLM server increasing flexibility and security. Node configurations are supported for PBS, Grid Engine and Slurm clusters.
Deploy Cloud Nodes Manually
Deploy nodes manually (without the intervention of the workload manager) for testing purposes or when your site wants to keep nodes deployed for an indeterminate amount of time.
Undeploy Cloud Nodes Manually
Undeploy cloud nodes when they are no longer needed.
Automate Cloud Scaling for Accelerator
Create rules to automatically scale-up and scale-down deployment of nodes on the cloud.
Automate Cloud Scaling for PBS Professional
Create rules to automatically scale-up and scale-down deployment of nodes on the cloud. Use node configuration to customize a node associated with a PBS cluster.
Automate Cloud Scaling for Grid Engine
Create rules to automatically scale-up and scale-down deployment of nodes on the cloud. Use node configuration to customize a node associated with a Grid Engine cluster.
Automate Cloud Scaling for Slurm
Create rules to automatically scale-up and scale-down deployment of nodes on the cloud. Use node configuration to customize a node associated with a Slurm cluster.
Generate API Keys
NavOps uses API keys to connect the NavOps server, WLM agent, head node and cloud nodes. Each cluster has a dedicated API KEY, if you would like to generate additional key please use the following instructions. The key is generated and displayed once. Make sure you save it as you won't be able to access it again. The key is generated for a specific cluster. The key is set on the deployed nodes. It is also present in the NavOps agent on the head node and the MoMs. The default expiry date of the key is one year. When the key expires, you can generate another one and replace the key manually on the head node.
Cost Center
Cost centers provide visibility of expenditure to dynamically manage cloud operations and plan ahead. Cost centers are associated with node delpoyments. The limits defined in the cost center are checked before deploying nodes. The estimated costs accrued by cost centers are displayed visually as well as in a table.
Accounting
The accounting dashboard provides a set of reports containing charts and tables tracking Burn Rate, Core Count, Node Count and Total Cost for the Cloud connector, Cloud credentials, Cloud environment, Node class and Cluster datasets. These reports can be produced for a custom date and time range or a set of preset date and time ranges.
Known Issues

Cloud Scaling Terminology

Definitions for terminology that is used to describe cloud scaling.

Deploy: The action of adding a node in the cloud.
Undeploy: The action of removing a node from both the NavOps and the cloud.
Cloud Credentials: Cloud credentials provides a method to define who is deploying the resources. Cloud credentials provide the authentication to perform the required scaling actions in the cloud. One or more accounts can be added in one or more clouds. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) are supported.
Cloud Environment: A Cloud environment provides a method to define where the cloud resources should be deployed. Cloud Environment captures the cloud region and networking infrastructure within a cloud credential to support deployment of a Node Class.
Node Class: Node Class provides a method to define what is deployed to the cloud. Node Class provides the infrastructure for the workload to run on. It is an instance type which defines benchmarked hardware. A Node Class exists in an Environment and consists of Instance Type, Image, SSH-Keys, cloud-init, and Tags.
Image: A pre-configured OS image in the cloud from which virtual machines can be instantiated.
Instance: A single virtual or bare metal machine in a cloud computing environment.
Instance type: Instance characteristics: the combination of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity.

Spot Instance: Spot Instances (also known as Low Priority of Preemptible instances depending on the vendor) provide instances at a discounted price. If the cloud provider sees high demand for dedicated instances it may preempt your spot instances with 2 minutes of notice typically provided. The price of spot instances changes over time. You can define a maximum price you will pay for those instances.

Preemption: When a spot instance is stopped the inventory will be updated if preemption is enabled.