UAB IT HPC Update January 2009 - Revision history

Jpr@uab.edu: /* Account Migration */ changed mount point to oldcheaha

2009-01-21T19:26:13Z

Account Migration: changed mount point to oldcheaha

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:26, 21 January 2009
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	The following command will copy all files to a folder call "oldcheaha" under your current home directory:		The following command will copy all files to a folder call "oldcheaha" under your current home directory:
	<pre>		<pre>
	cp -r /u/$LOGNAME $HOME/oldcheaha		cp -r /oldcheaha/$LOGNAME $HOME/oldcheaha
	</pre>		</pre>
	Users are encouraged, however, to use this opportunity to clean out unused files and selectively copy only data they wish to preserve.		Users are encouraged, however, to use this opportunity to clean out unused files and selectively copy only data they wish to preserve.

Jpr@uab.edu: Fixed implication of first sentance.

2009-01-20T22:38:02Z

Fixed implication of first sentance.

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:38, 20 January 2009
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	Cheaha, ~~the UAB~~ community resource dedicated to enhancing research computing productivity, has reached a significant milestone that incorporates several incremental updates. With the acquisition of new hardware in August of last year and the addition of grid computing technologies, Cheaha is now able to harness an expanded compute pool of local and remote resources.		Cheaha, a community resource dedicated to enhancing research computing productivity at UAB, has reached a significant milestone that incorporates several incremental updates. With the acquisition of new hardware in August of last year and the addition of grid computing technologies, Cheaha is now able to harness an expanded compute pool of local and remote resources.

	This milestone reflects the collaboration of many individuals and includes contributions of expertise from many organizations, most notably, Computer and Information Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, the Section on Statistical Genetics, and the Alabama Supercomputing Authority.		This milestone reflects the collaboration of many individuals and includes contributions of expertise from many organizations, most notably, Computer and Information Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, the Section on Statistical Genetics, and the Alabama Supercomputing Authority.

Jpr@uab.edu: Clarified introduction and added support link for completeness

2009-01-20T21:34:19Z

Clarified introduction and added support link for completeness

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:34, 20 January 2009
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	Cheaha, the UAB ~~IT sponsored~~ resource ~~for~~ research computing, has reached a significant milestone that incorporates several incremental updates ~~beginning with~~ the acquisition of new hardware in August of last year.		Cheaha, the UAB community resource dedicated to enhancing research computing productivity, has reached a significant milestone that incorporates several incremental updates. With the acquisition of new hardware in August of last year and the addition of grid computing technologies, Cheaha is now able to harness an expanded compute pool of local and remote resources.

	This milestone reflects the collaboration of many individuals and includes contributions of expertise from many organizations, most notably, Computer and Information Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, the Section on Statistical Genetics, and the Alabama Supercomputing Authority.		This milestone reflects the collaboration of many individuals and includes contributions of expertise from many organizations, most notably, Computer and Information Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, the Section on Statistical Genetics, and the Alabama Supercomputing Authority.

	These updates to Cheaha represent a significant performance upgrade that ~~includes~~ almost 3 TeraFlops of dedicated compute power and the introduction of advanced software and networking tools to harness the power of grid computing. Researchers can now explore the development of scientific workflows that leverage the full complement of their available resources via the GridWay scheduler and 10Gigabit ~~networking~~ between clusters.		These updates to Cheaha represent a significant performance upgrade that provides almost 3 TeraFlops of dedicated compute power and the introduction of advanced software and networking tools to harness the power of grid computing. Researchers can now explore the development of scientific workflows that leverage the full complement of their available resources via the GridWay scheduler and 10Gigabit connectivity between clusters.

	These new features are, of course, available alongside the familiar SGE scheduler environment to ensure that all users can continue leveraging Cheaha for their established operations without interruption.		These new features are, of course, available alongside the familiar SGE scheduler environment to ensure that all users can continue leveraging Cheaha for their established operations without interruption.

	Cheaha documentation is maintained on-line and includes ~~details~~ of ~~these changes~~, ~~help on getting~~ started using this resource, and other useful information. Please bookmark the documentation URL for future reference.		Cheaha documentation is maintained on-line and includes an overview of its services, links to get started using this resource, and other useful information. Please bookmark the Cheaha documentation URL for future reference.

	http://docs.uabgrid.uab.edu/wiki/Cheaha		http://docs.uabgrid.uab.edu/wiki/Cheaha

	A summary of ~~the~~ updates and some guidance on migration ~~follows~~.		A summary of these updates and some guidance on migration follow.

			Cheaha is resource for research computing developed and sponsored by UAB IT and located in the UAB Shared Computing Facility. Operational support for Cheaha is provided by the UAB School of Engineering cluster support group.

	== Hostname Change ==		== Hostname Change ==
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	</pre>		</pre>
	Users are encouraged, however, to use this opportunity to clean out unused files and selectively copy only data they wish to preserve.		Users are encouraged, however, to use this opportunity to clean out unused files and selectively copy only data they wish to preserve.

			== Support ==

			To request authorization to use Cheaha or for assistance migrating your account from the old system, please submit a [http://me.eng.uab.edu/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page service request] with the cluster support group.

Jpr@uab.edu: /* Account Migration */ Clarify wording and add pre markup for commands

2009-01-20T21:05:37Z

Account Migration: Clarify wording and add pre markup for commands

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:05, 20 January 2009
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	== Account Migration ==		== Account Migration ==

	The storage systems from the original Cheaha system are scheduled for decommission. This affects the home directories of all users who had accounts on the original Cheaha ~~hardware~~. ~~Users~~ should copy any data they want to preserve to their ~~new~~ home ~~directories~~.		The storage systems from the original Cheaha system are scheduled for decommission. This affects the home directories of all users who had accounts on the original Cheaha system. Affected users should copy any data they want to preserve from their old home directories to their current home directory on Cheaha.

	As a convenience, the old home directories are accessible directly via the file system of the new ~~cluster~~. Users should copy any files they ~~which~~ to preserve from their old home directories located at /u/$LOGNAME to their ~~new~~ home directory located at $HOME. ~~The following command will copy all files to a folder call "oldcheaha" under the home directory:~~		As a convenience, the old home directories are accessible directly via the file system of the new system. Users should copy any files they wish to preserve from their old home directories located at /u/$LOGNAME to their current home directory (located at $HOME).

			The following command will copy all files to a folder call "oldcheaha" under your current home directory:
			<pre>
	cp -r /u/$LOGNAME $HOME/oldcheaha		cp -r /u/$LOGNAME $HOME/oldcheaha
			</pre>
	Users are encouraged, however, to use this opportunity to clean out unused files and selectively copy only data they wish to preserve.		Users are encouraged, however, to use this opportunity to clean out unused files and selectively copy only data they wish to preserve.

Jpr@uab.edu: /* Hostname Change */ Add pre tags and improve wording for clarity

2009-01-20T20:41:35Z

Hostname Change: Add pre tags and improve wording for clarity

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:41, 20 January 2009
Line 15:		Line 15:
	== Hostname Change ==		== Hostname Change ==

	~~The~~ official ~~network~~ name ~~for~~ Cheaha is:		Please update your client software to use the new official host name to access Cheaha:

			<pre>
	cheaha.uabgrid.uab.edu		cheaha.uabgrid.uab.edu
			</pre>

	~~Please update your client software~~ to use ~~this~~ host name.		The previous host name will be mapped to this host name to support the transition for existing users. If you continue to use the old host name, the name mapping may trigger a warning in your secure shell software about the host fingerprint having changed.

	~~The previous host name will be mapped to this host name to support the transition for existing users. This name mapping may trigger a warning from your secure shell software.~~ To ensure that you are connecting to the ~~official~~ host, you can verify that the ~~finger print~~ presented by your client matches:		To ensure that you are connecting to the legitimate host, you can verify that the fingerprint presented by your secure shell client for cheaha.uabgrid.uab.edu matches:

			<pre>
	d4:2e:cc:12:95:a2:39:cc:b7:2c:d8:97:37:75:e9:6f		d4:2e:cc:12:95:a2:39:cc:b7:2c:d8:97:37:75:e9:6f
			</pre>

	== Hardware Updates ==		== Hardware Updates ==

Jpr@uab.edu: Draft announcement - import from circulated version

2009-01-20T19:45:57Z

Draft announcement - import from circulated version

New page

Cheaha, the UAB IT sponsored resource for research computing, has reached a significant milestone that incorporates several incremental updates beginning with the acquisition of new hardware in August of last year.

This milestone reflects the collaboration of many individuals and includes contributions of expertise from many organizations, most notably, Computer and Information Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, the Section on Statistical Genetics, and the Alabama Supercomputing Authority.

These updates to Cheaha represent a significant performance upgrade that includes almost 3 TeraFlops of dedicated compute power and the introduction of advanced software and networking tools to harness the power of grid computing. Researchers can now explore the development of scientific workflows that leverage the full complement of their available resources via the GridWay scheduler and 10Gigabit networking between clusters.

These new features are, of course, available alongside the familiar SGE scheduler environment to ensure that all users can continue leveraging Cheaha for their established operations without interruption.

Cheaha documentation is maintained on-line and includes details of these changes, help on getting started using this resource, and other useful information. Please bookmark the documentation URL for future reference.

http://docs.uabgrid.uab.edu/wiki/Cheaha

A summary of the updates and some guidance on migration follows.

== Hostname Change ==

The official network name for Cheaha is:

cheaha.uabgrid.uab.edu

Please update your client software to use this host name.

The previous host name will be mapped to this host name to support the transition for existing users. This name mapping may trigger a warning from your secure shell software. To ensure that you are connecting to the official host, you can verify that the finger print presented by your client matches:

d4:2e:cc:12:95:a2:39:cc:b7:2c:d8:97:37:75:e9:6f

== Hardware Updates ==

The August 2008 hardware acquisition migrated Cheaha's core infrastructure to a Dell blade clustering solution. This transition provides a 3 fold increase in processor density over the original hardware and enables more computing power to be located in the same physical space with room for expansion, an important consideration in light of the continued growth in processing demand.

The new head node and the 24 new compute nodes each contain 2 quad-core 3.0GHz Intel x86-64 processors with 16GB of RAM per node. This translates into a processing pool of 192 cores with 2GB of RAM per core and represents 2.3TeraFlops of raw compute power, an 6 fold increase over the original hardware.

In a change from previous cluster upgrades, the original compute hardware is being folded into the system along-side the new hardware. This expands the total pool of compute nodes and continues to leverage hardware that can contribute usefully to the overall performance of scientific workflows.

== Software Updates ==

The introduction of the GridWay scheduler enables users to manage the distribution of compute jobs across multiple clusters through a single interface. This can significantly increase the total compute capacity available by enabling users to access all the available compute cycles of participating clusters (currently Cheaha, Olympus, Everest, and Ferrum with others to be added). This can lead to simplified workflows and maximized use of compute resources. More details on GridWay are available here:

http://docs.uabgrid.uab.edu/wiki/Cheaha#GridWay

The system software has also been upgraded to CentOS 5 with new versions of the GNU and Intel compilers. This will require recompilation of any dynamically linked application codes. Statically linked codes should continue to operate fine. More details on the software available are available here:

http://docs.uabgrid.uab.edu/wiki/Cheaha#Software

== Network Updates ==

Cheaha is connected to the UAB Research Network, which provides a 10Gbs networking backplane for clusters in the UAB Shared Computing Facility and Department of Computer and Information Science HPC Center. At present only Cheaha and Ferrum (a CIS cluster) are connected via 10Gbs interfaces. Data transfers rates of almost 8Gbs between these hosts have been demonstrated using Grid FTP, a multi-channel file transfer service that is used by GridWay to move data between clusters as part of the job management operations. This performance promises very efficient job management and the seamless integration of other clusters as connectivity to the research network is expanded.

== Account Migration ==

The storage systems from the original Cheaha system are scheduled for decommission. This affects the home directories of all users who had accounts on the original Cheaha hardware. Users should copy any data they want to preserve to their new home directories.

As a convenience, the old home directories are accessible directly via the file system of the new cluster. Users should copy any files they which to preserve from their old home directories located at /u/$LOGNAME to their new home directory located at $HOME. The following command will copy all files to a folder call "oldcheaha" under the home directory:

cp -r /u/$LOGNAME $HOME/oldcheaha

Users are encouraged, however, to use this opportunity to clean out unused files and selectively copy only data they wish to preserve.