Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta 1 includes many additions to the Microsoft.Hpc.Scheduler.Session namespace to support SOA clients that provide fire and recollect, durable, shared and batch sessions.

The new items in the Microsoft.Hpc.Scheduler.Session namespace include:

• BrokerClient class
  
  
• BrokerResponse class
  
  
• BrokerResponseEnumerator class
  
  
• BrokerResponseHandler delegate
  
  
• DurableSession class
  
  
• Session.AttachSession method
  
  
• SessionAttachInfo class
  
  
• SessionBase class
  
  
• SessionStartInfo.SessionStartInfo.System.Runtime.Serialization.ISerialization.ISerializable.GetObjectData method
  
  
• SessionStartInfo.Constructor (SerializationInfo, StreamingContext)
  
  
• SessionStartInfo.Environments property
  
  
• SessionStartInfo.SavePassword property
  
  

Items in the Microsoft.Hpc.Scheduler.Session that are no longer supported in Windows® HPC Server 2008 R2 include:

• SessionStartInfo.HasRuntime property
  
  
• SessionStartInfo.BrokerSettingsInfo constructor
  
  
• SessionStartInfo.BrokerSettingsInfo.AllocationGrowLoadRatioThreshold property
  
  
• SessionStartInfo.BrokerSettingsInfo.AllocationShrinkLoadRatioThreshold property
  
  

For more information, see the Session APIs in the HPC Class Library (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167944).

You can download SOA client code samples on Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta on the Microsoft® Connect Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169523).

In Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta 1, cluster administrators and partners can create custom diagnostic tests. Partners include independent software vendors (ISVs), independent hardware vendors (IHVs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and system integrators. Cluster administrators can add these tests to the list of diagnostic tests for their HPC cluster, and then run them in the same way as the built-in diagnostic tests for Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta 1. With custom diagnostic tests, cluster administrators can verify that custom and non-Microsoft software or hardware that they have added to their HPC cluster works correctly.

For more information about writing and installing custom diagnostic tests, see:

Diagnostics Extensibility in Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 CTP2 Step-by-Step Guide on MSDN (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=177604). This guide describes custom diagnostic tests, how to define and implement several types of custom diagnostic tests, and how to add custom diagnostic tests to an HPC cluster.

Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta 1 includes changes to support programming integration with the scheduler. Two new properties in Microsoft.Hpc.Scheduler namespace (ISchedulerJob.Progress and ISchedulerJob.ProgressMessage) allow applications to communicate progress to the job owner through the HPC job submission interfaces (HPC Job Manager, HPC PowerShell, and the command line interface). For more information, see Setting Custom Job Progress Information in Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta 1 Step-by-Step Guide.

For more information about the Microsoft.Hpc.Scheduler namespace, see the Scheduler APIs in the HPC Class Library (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167944).

In Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta 1, the HPC Node Manager Service stops a running task by sending a CTRL+BREAK signal to the application. If an application includes code to handle the CTRL+BREAK event, it can make use of the Task Cancellation Grace Period to exit gracefully. The Task Cancellation Grace Period is a cluster property that can be set by the cluster administrator. The default time is 15 seconds. If the application does not respond to the CTRL+BREAK event, it exits immediately.