Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
Customer Solution Case Study
Software Tester Upgrades Environment for
Enhanced Performance and Service
Customer: Beijing Software Testing & QA
Center
Web Site: www.bstqc.com
Customer Size: Approximately 100
employees
Country or Region: China
Industry: Nonprofit
Customer Profile
The Beijing Software Testing & QA Center,
based in Beijing, China, is a nonprofit
organization that is dedicated to
professional rendering and independent
software testing.
Software and Services
 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
− Windows HPC Server 2008
Hardware
 HP BladeSystem c7000 with HP ProLiant
BL460 Blade Server computers with
Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors and 8
GB RAM
 Sun Blade X6250 Server Modules with
Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors and 8
GB RAM
For more information about other Microsoft
customer successes, please visit:
www.microsoft.com/casestudies
“We’re adding value for our customers … we’re better
able to invest our time in resolving more complicated
issues for them because Windows HPC Server 2008
can do more in less time.”
Xie Hao, IT Manager, Beijing Software Testing & QA Center
Beijing Software Testing & QA Center (BSTQC) runs a render farm
that uses high-performance computing to help customers produce
animation and special effects. The organization upgraded its
render farm from the first generation of Windows® HPC to Windows
HPC Server 2008, which helped increased performance by 15
percent and improved customer service as a result. BSTQC also
reduced its costs due to the new system’s automated monitoring
capabilities.
Business Needs
Beijing Software Testing & QA Center
(BSTQC) was founded in 2002 in part to
assist local companies to improve their
research and development capabilities. It
also plays a vital role in increasing the speed
of entry for Chinese software products into
the worldwide market.
As part of its services, BSTQC runs a public
render farm that helps small and midsize
businesses create animation and special
effects for films and television series. The
render farm relies heavily on high-
performance computing to efficiently
process the complex data necessary to
produce high-quality animation and special
effects.
Until recently, the organization used the first
version of Windows® HPC for the majority of
its rendering work. BSTQC maintained a
cluster of 180 nodes on that operating
system and also ran a smaller, 10-node highperformance computing cluster on the Linux
operating system to accommodate a few
specialized applications that were not
designed to run on the Windows platform.
Although the Windows environment ran
smoothly for BSTQC, the organization wanted
to take advantage of newer technology to
improve system performance. “We
determined that, by reducing how long it takes
us to run each rendering job, we can serve our
customers more quickly and therefore take on
more work,” says Xie Hao, IT Manager for
Beijing Software Testing & QA Center.
Solution
In April 2008, BSTQC deployed Windows HPC
Server 2008 on 128 of its 190 nodes and did
so in a dual-boot environment with its prior
version of Windows HPC. “Some of our
customers use plug-in applications that are
not yet compatible with Windows HPC Server
2008, so right now it’s important for us to
offer the flexibility of a dual-boot
environment,” comments Xie Hao.
BSTQC used Windows Deployment Services to
implement Windows HPC Server 2008, which
took only a few hours to set up and less than
one hour to deploy. “We were confident in our
ability to conduct a smooth implementation
and found it easy to use Windows Deployment
Services to do so,” says Xie Hao.
The organization already is benefiting from
new features in Windows HPC Server 2008.
For instance, BSTQC uses the Job Scheduler,
with the Windows PowerShell™ command line
interface, to submit jobs through a user’s
choice of graphical or text-based user
interface. For management, BSTQC uses the
Heat Map feature, which provides a real-time,
interactive view of the overall health and
status of all nodes. Says Xie Hao, “Both the
Job Scheduler and Heat Map functionality
help us increase our levels of productivity.”
As of October 2008, BSTQC runs
approximately 20 percent of its rendering jobs
on the new system and expects that number
to increase. “We use applications such as
Autodesk 3D Studio MAX and MentalImage
MentalRay with Windows HPC Server 2008,”
says Xie Hao. “It certainly can handle those
applications, and we look forward to even
greater use of the new system in the future
as the plug-ins for these applications
improve.”

Ease of use. People who use the render
farm are benefiting from greater job
scheduling options. “We like the advanced
capabilities of the new Job Scheduler,”
says Xie Hao. “For instance, with Windows
PowerShell, we have a simplified process
for using more advanced scripts, and that
helps us process more challenging jobs
than we could handle before.”

Better monitoring capabilities. BSTQC has
found that administering the system has
been easy, thanks to monitoring features
that are built into Windows HPC Server
2008. “We’ve found the Heat Map to be
particularly helpful because we can see in
real time every CPU’s status along with our
overall network status,” says Xie Hao.
“With the monitoring features in Windows
HPC Server 2008, we’re able to identify
issues more quickly and keep the whole
cluster running smoothly.”

Significant cost savings. BSTQC has
lowered its operating costs due to its use
of Windows HPC Server 2008. “We now
need fewer people dedicated to system
monitoring because we’ve automated
processes, which results in considerable
savings for us,” explains Xie Hao. “We’ve
also experienced a positive total cost of
ownership. Traditionally, people think that
a Windows-based system costs more
overall, but we’ve found that it’s actually
the same or lower than the overall cost of
our Linux environment.”
In fact, BSTQC is in the process of adding
another 112 nodes to its Windows HPC
Server 2008 cluster and likely will add more
in the future. “We’re not at all concerned
about scalability with Windows HPC Server
2008,” states Xie Hao.
Benefits
With Windows HPC Server 2008 in place,
Beijing Software Testing & QA Center has
increased its computing speed, enhanced its
system monitoring capabilities, and added
greater value for its customers. At the same
time, BSTQC has experienced labor
efficiencies, resulting in considerable cost
savings.


Accelerated performance. The
organization appreciates the faster
performance that it has achieved since
the upgrade. “We’ve compared computing
speeds, and we saw a 15-percent increase
in performance of some rendering jobs
with Windows HPC Server 2008,” says Xie
Hao. “Faster speeds mean that we can
reduce our total production time for
customers and help fulfill our goal of
getting software to market quickly.”
Improved customer service. BSTQC
customers can expect the organization to
have the computation capabilities to
handle more complex rendering than it
could in the past. “We’re adding value for
our customers because we’re not only
finishing jobs more quickly, but we’re
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published November 2008
better able to invest our time in resolving
complicated issues for them because
Windows HPC Server 2008 can do more in
less time,” says Xie Hao.