Brunel University, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK Dr Peter R Hobson C.Phys M.Inst.P SIRE Group

HEPSYSMAN, 28 April 2003 SIRE Group computing HEP computing plus image processing and digital holography. About 15 local users GRID computing for particle physics and other computationally intensive applications. Windows 2000 or RH 7 or 8 on the desktop , networking provided centrally (Unix servers at present but migrating to full W2000) No PPARC funded system management effort

HEPSYSMAN, 28 April 2003 SIRE Group facilities Small amount of desktop power New cluster being installed (SRIF 1) in our new “BITLab” –64 Dual hyper threading Xeon nodes –2 Gb memory per node –Dual 1-Gbit network connectivity between nodes –Part of the London Distributed Tier-2 centre Recent success with SRIF 2 funds –128 more nodes to come All cluster computing resources shared with a number of other non-HEP users.

HEPSYSMAN, 28 April 2003 Local challenges All networking controlled centrally –Presents a real challenge for GRID computing, videoconferencing etc. –Centrally managed firewall –Central responsibility for certificate authentication Efficient and flexible management of the Tier 2 –Mixed user community with special needs HEP computing 3D visualisation Video walls Ray tracing engines etc. –Coordination of new resources

HEPSYSMAN, 28 April 2003 Summary Major changes taking place Huge (for us) increase in computing power and management complexity No increase in funded personnel New mixed user environment Changes in the central computing provision Our “BITLab” is a University flagship project, so it had better work well this Autumn!