1. Virtual Supercomputing Cam Macdonell Dept of Computing Science

2. What is Computing Science? “So…you…like…write programs or something?” Can you fix my printer?

3. Scientific Computing Scientific applications are on the leading edge of computing –Lots of resources –Complex interactions –Huge amounts of data

4. Fastest Supercomputer –IBM BlueGene/L @ LLNL Previously fastest –NEC Earth Simulator Are computers good at solving problems in natural science?

5. Computing in Canada Canada lacks world class computing facilities We have to be able to aggregate resources from numerous institutions The CISS experiments explored aggregating computing resources –4000 CPUs, 19 ADs

6. Aggregating is difficult Different administration domains Running GROMACS –Requires fftw –Doesn’t like new compilers –Files must be in certain locations And this is just for one application!

7. There is hope! Virtualization!

8. Virtualization Is it appropriate for Scientific Computing? –Performance has improved –Pricing has improved (it’s become free)

9. Virtual Images Positives –Completely portable Less administration –Control entire environment within Virtual Image We can run any application in them We can bundle data control software within them

10. Virtual Images Negatives –Large size GBs for virtual disks –Performance Loss Virtualization is slower than running on hardware

11. VMware on Busby Gromacs test run on Busby1

12. Future Directions Resolve performance anomaly More accurate timings of phases Run other applications Get all 4 nodes running concurrently