Windows HPC Server 2008 provides the option to automatically deploy OS images to new cluster node, using Windows Deployment Services. However, this requires the HPC cluster to be set up with a "private network" network topology.
From HPC Cluster Manager Help: "Network Topology 'All nodes only on an enterprise network': Because all nodes are connected only to the enterprise network, you cannot use Windows Deployment Services to deploy compute node images using the new deployment tools in Windows HPC Server 2008."
When selecting "Compute nodes isolated on a private network" as network topology, HPC network configuration wizard calls out that "2 online network adapters are needed for this topology". No problem for a cluster of physical machines.
My question is: if the compute cluster consists of virtual machines (running on multiple host machines), how can I set up a "virtual network" for all VMs? And, is there a way to set up some kind of virtual network switch on the head node which HPC accepts as a second NIC?
Btw. this is for a test environment, the production cluster consists of physical machines.