1. Research Computing with Newton Gerald Ragghianti Nov. 12, 2010

2. What is the Newton Program? Community collaboration Supporting High Performance Computing Infrastructure management Consultation Training Research Objectives Increase Effectiveness Reduce duplication Enhance Capability User applications Computational environment (OS, cluster management, software) Computing hardware Computing infrastructure (space, network, power, cooling) Community organization (policies, membership)

3. Service features Technical HPC cluster High-performance storage Remote data backup (time machine) Computing environment management Resource management (Grid Engine) Professional Computing support Technical advising Consulting (proposal development)

4. The Newton cluster Linux-based distributed memory compute cluster 295 computers 2500 CPUs 5TB RAM 40 Gbit/sec Infiniband 80 TB Storage Storage server Lustre storageHead node Compute node Lustre storage External network Infiniband network Ethernet network Compute node Interactive nodeCompute node Lustre storage Storage server

5. Advantages of working on Newton Teams of free systems experts System Administrators Research Consultants Network Engineers Service Desk Operations personnel (24-hour) Larger potential available resources Guaranteed future support No worries about data centers, cooling, electrical power, physical/software security, operating systems, software maintenance, hardware acquisition/installation/failures, data integrity Lets you concentrate on the interesting stuff

6. What an investment gets me Contractual guarantee of service CPU investment: We purchase compute nodes on your behalf Highest tier (Tier 1) access to the job queues Tier 1 membership for three years after investment Guaranteed CPU allocations (ownership) Proportional to the investment size Equal to or greater than an independent cluster Storage investment: We purchase storage or allocate from previously purchased storage Fixed amount of dedicated storage for a 5 year term Multiple performance levels available Optional daily backup of data

7. How CPU allocations work CPU allocation is proportional to the size of the investment As the cluster gets larger, this may go up Determines how many CPUs you may use in the queues Your group will become Tier 1 priority Always higher priority than tiers 2 and 3. Job queues (based on job runtime) Long (>24 hours): use up to the CPU allocation Medium (< 24 hours): use up to 2x the CPU allocation Short (< 2hours): no limits High priority means lower job wait time (median job wait is 14s) PI can specify sub-allocations for group members

8. More Information Newton Program website: http://newton.utk.edu/http://newton.utk.edu/ Program policies Documentation Meetings / support / consulting schedule HPC Mailing List: USG_HPCC@listserv.utk.edu