Linux Clusters: Turnkey and Ready to Deploy
Nor-Tech’s Linux clusters are turnkey and ready to deploy, built by engineers who have spent decades designing, optimizing, and supporting HPC systems. From OS configuration and scheduler integration to high-speed networking and advanced storage, Nor-Tech delivers complete solutions that are fully tested prior to shipment and ready to use the day they arrive.
Nor-Tech’s engineers have extensive experience with ZFS-based storage, a leading solution for outstanding performance, data integrity, and resilience at scale. Nor-Tech deploys ZFS on large storage servers—often with 30 to 90 drives tied together through high-bandwidth HBAs. In smaller systems, Nor-Tech can eliminate the need for an HBA entirely, reducing costs while maintaining performance.
ZFS offers the following advantages over traditional RAID solutions such as mdadm[1] or hardware RAID:
- Superior Data Integrity: ZFS provides end-to-end check-summing that detects and corrects silent data corruption. If a block is damaged, ZFS can automatically rebuild it using healthy data from another disk—something traditional RAID often cannot do.
- Copy-on-Write Reliability: Data is always written to a new location first. If a crash or power failure occurs mid-write, the original data remains intact.
- Simplified Storage Management: By combining file system and volume management into a single layer, ZFS creates flexible storage pools that simplify administrative tasks. This unified approach reduces complexity and makes cluster deployment faster and more predictable.
- Built-In Advanced Features: ZFS includes capabilities that are extremely valuable for HPC and AI workloads such as fast, space-efficient snapshots; on-the-fly compression; deduplication; and efficient resilvering[2]—capable of rebuilding only the data, not the entire disk
These features reduce downtime, increase performance, and minimize long-term storage costs.
Nor-Tech’s Linux Expertise
Nor-tech’s engineering team builds Linux clusters that are:
- Fully integrated, tested, and ready to deploy
- Tuned for performance across compute, networking and storage
- Built with cost-effective, high-integrity ZFS architectures
- Supported by a team known for accessible, people-friendly support
Traditional RAID may still be appropriate for some environments, particularly when simplicity or minimal CPU utilization is a priority. But for HPC users who need data integrity, scalability, and leading-edge storage capabilities, ZFS—optimized through Nor-Tech’s Linux integration expertise—is the smartest way to go.
Whether you’re building a new HPC data center, upgrading an existing system, or scaling for AI workloads, Nor-Tech delivers turnkey Linux clusters designed for immediate productivity and long-term reliability. Learn more at: https://nor-tech.com/leading-linux-experts/
Why Nor-Tech is the Best Choice for Your Business
Since 1998 we have been establishing ourselves as one of the leading providers of quality HPC solutions. Our servers are backed by an expert team that is available to provide support and assistance, ensuring that your business always has access to the resources you need. Contact us for more information or a quick quote: 952-808-1000; engineering@nor-tech.com/ or click on the Contact tab at https://nor-tech.com/contact/.
Nor-Tech is on CRN’s list of the top 40 Data Center Infrastructure Providers along with IBM, Oracle, Dell, and Supermicro and is also a member of Hyperion Research’s prestigious HPC Technical Computing Advisory Panel. The company is a complete high performance computer solution provider for 2015 and 2017 Nobel Physics Award-contending/winning projects. Nor-Tech engineers average 20+ years of experience. This strong industry reputation and deep partner relationships also enable the company to be a leading supplier of cost-effective Lenovo desktops, laptops, tablets and Chromebooks to schools and enterprises. All of Nor-Tech’s high-performance technology is developed by Nor-Tech in Minnesota and supported by Nor-Tech around the world. The company is headquartered in Burnsville, Minn. just outside of Minneapolis. Nor-Tech holds the following contracts: Minnesota State IT, University of Wisconsin System, and NASA SEWP V. To contact Nor-Tech call 952-808-1000 or visit https://www.nor-tech.com.
[1] Multiple Device Administration: a Linux software tool for creating and managing RAID arrays.
[2] Resilvering is a ZFS term for the process of rebuilding or repairing data on a redundant storage device after a drive is replaced or has gone offline and come returned.