14th April 1999Hepix Oxford Particle Physics Site Report Pete Gronbech Systems Manager

14th April 1999Hepix Server based computing l Low Cost Seats l Central Unix Server l Central VMS Server l Central Mail Server l Central Web Server

14th April 1999Hepix Goals and Objectives l Flexibility on the Desktop n Access to networked services (X, http, IMAP) n Access to PC Applications n Reduce management overheads n Reduce costs l Servers provide Compute power n Compatibility with CERN / DESY n Provide Code development environments

14th April 1999Hepix The Server / Desktop Divide NT PC Unix Workstation Desktops Servers General Purpose Unix Server VMS Server Mail Server Web Server NT Server

14th April 1999Hepix Goals and Objectives 2 l Aim to standardise and centralise as much of the IT infrastructure as provides real benefit across whole department. l Aim to provide HEP specific computing on top of basic infrastructure - basically compute servers l Desktop Strategy - Windows NT Workstation (80 particle physics 200 across physics) MS Office, eXceed, Web browsers, Mail clients etc. Systems generated by cloning (with GHOST) and used by wide range of users l Server Strategy - HEP Computation - Heavy use of remote compute farms, local compute server (Digital UNIX 3 CPU server) for interactive work especially code development. Recently Linux for CDF group

14th April 1999Hepix Linux NT PC Unix Workstation Desktops Servers CDF Linux (Dual 400MHz PII) RAL Linux Farm Porting Machine Treat Linux as just another Unix and hence a server OS to be managed centrally. Wish to avoid badly managed desktop PC’s running Linux.

14th April 1999Hepix Goals and Objectives 3 l Server Strategy - IT in general - NT server (6) for desktop file/print, Exchange 5.5 for , IIS 4 for web serving, Ntrigue for network access to PC applications. Just installed MS Terminal Server to give NT 4 remote access to replace Ntrigue. l VMS - DAQ systems still important but general purpose service is running down (mail, word processing etc going to NT) l Data Acquisition - LABview on NT for most laboratory DAQ and control (used by wide range of research groups) l Videoconferencing - PC based Intel plus access to ISDN6 Tandberg. MS Netmeeting used frequently to DESY

14th April 1999Hepix Mb/s

14th April 1999Hepix Performance

14th April 1999Hepix Standard NT PC Clone circa 1995 l Pentium 100MHz l 1GB Hard Disk l 16MB Memory l Quad Speed CD Rom l Sound Capability l Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM l 17” iiyama Colour Monitor l 10Mb/s Network Card Hardware Custom Built to our spec for about £1.6K inc. VAT and Software Licenses

14th April 1999Hepix Standard NT PC Clone circa 1999 l Pentium II 350MHz l 8GB Hard Disk l 128MB Memory l 32 Speed CD Rom l Sound Capability l AGP Rage Pro Graphics l 17” iiyama Colour Monitor l 100Mb/s Network Card Hardware Custom Built to our spec for about £1.2K inc. VAT and Software Licenses

14th April 1999Hepix Network Access al? The Internet r series commands restricted to within pnp subnet. No telnet, ssh, or ftp access from outside subnet. Use telnet or ssh to access al1.physics.ox.ac.uk from outside the pnp subnet pnp subnet x x al1

14th April 1999Hepix

14th April 1999Hepix Plans and Concerns l Look to replace local compute server in 1999 (Alpha?) l NT4 provides all desktop functionality we need. Will look at NT5 /NT2000 but no rush. l choice of OS/platforms for computation. (if Linux which version?) l cost of software licensing

14th April 1999Hepix Conclusions l Unix servers dictated by experimental collaborations l Standardised NT PC Clone n Less variables - Simpler to manage l Commodity Hardware and Software n More cost effective l Minimise the systems management