Agenda for the ITC-Research Computing Management Meeting
September 26, 2005 at 10:30AM in ITC-2015 Ivy Road, Room 220

Members: Alice, Hamp, Jim, Terry, Tim S., Tom S., Tim T.
Chair: Tim T.
Recorder: Alice Howard

I. Corrections to minutes from last meeting on May 23, 2005?

II. Old Business:

• Cluster projects:
  • "Condo" Cluster: (cedar.itc)126 nodes, Dual CPU Opteron's (1.8 Ghz) 2MB memory, 80GB hard drive.
  • "Condo Cluster" program details preserved at: http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/itc-clusters/itc-linux-cluster-purchase-dec04.pdf.
  • Is "data grid" (A.Grimshaw) gateway server set up yet?
  • Are we running all the nodes of the cluster (125?) now? Electricity & cooling status?
• Proposal for Linux cluster support as 'for-fee' service. (@March 28, 2005 was in progress per Hamp)
  • Need guidelines for how to handle support for researchers who don't purchase cluster support but expect assistance and guidance from ITC for their cluster.
• Linux license server, "linux.license.virginia.edu".
• New "disk wedge" leasing rates. Ability to get additional disk storage space is a CRITICAL issue for researchers.
• Updated Timeline and priority order of all other projects (blue.unix upgrade, others?).
• Acquiring monitoring tools, as discussed in March, especially, MPI Link Checker? (65 to 128 nodes is $4250 less 20% = $3400.
• Dropping "umenu" on ITC Unix systems (e.g., blue.unix)
  

III. New Business:

• IBM Deep Computing Syposium October 12-14, San Jose, CA. Should someone go?
• Condo-Cluster II - kicking off next round of acquistion. What to keep and what to change?
  • http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/itc-clusters/cluster-purchase.html
  • Timeline? We were off by four months on our promised "go-live" date.
• Should we have a checklist and process for cluster rollouts and upgrades. What's tested, checked before release? Things like on cedar's rollout: change from pico to nano; "cavalier" IPs blocked, libraries, esp. MKL libraries, NIS change.
• What or what more can we be doing towards recruitment of 10 NAS-level faculty?
• Birch maintenance contract expires when? Renew?
• Questions/requests from CS faculty (CS414) for Linux instructional cluster/workstations.

V. Adjourn by 11:45AM and next meeting

• Next Scheduled Meeting of whole Standing Committee group: Monday, October 31st , 10:30 AM in ITC-2015 Ivy Road, Room #102
• Next Scheduled Meeting of ITC ResComp Management team: Monday, Nov 28th, 10:30 AM in ITC-2015 Ivy Road, Room #220
  
  
  Suggestions, additions, corrections to: Tim Tolson or Alice Howard
  

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