Infrastructure servers provide the non-compute services in the cluster including administration and user access. Typically, these servers fall into two roles: management and login nodes. The exact configuration and number of infrastructure servers depends on the cluster size and requirements. For example, a single management node is sufficient for a small HPC cluster. However, if a cluster has High Availability (HA) requirements, a second server is necessary. While login servers are not required, separating users from the critical management systems makes administration easier and minimizes unplanned downtime. For example, a typical system has one login server per every 30 to 100 users. Infrastructure nodes can also be used to provide additional services such as NFS.

The baseline configurations for infrastructure nodes are based on the R6525 (AMD) and R650 (Intel) servers. Density is not a concern because infrastructure nodes are a small fraction of the overall cluster, therefore regular 1U, or 2U systems can be used. Typically, clusters have matching platform architectures the same as their infrastructure and compute servers for ease of administration. Login nodes specifically benefit from being of the same architecture as application nodes.