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Head node

The machine in a cluster that coordinates work: it schedules tasks onto compute nodes and tracks their results.

It schedules rather than computes. Results return through it, which is why a single enormous return value can make the head node the bottleneck even when the compute nodes are idle.

Distributed computeFundamentals

Related terms

  • Cluster: A set of machines, one head node and one or more compute nodes, launched together to run distributed work.
  • Compute node: A machine in a cluster that executes tasks. Compute nodes do the work; the head node coordinates it.
  • Scheduler: The component on the head node that decides which compute node runs each task, honoring the resources that task requested.
  • Job scheduler: The queueing system on a traditional HPC cluster that decides when a submitted job runs. Eugo has no queue: you launch a cluster and dispatch work to it.