Agenda for the ITC-Research Computing Standing Committee Meeting
August 29, 2005 at 10:30AM
in ITC-2015 Ivy Road, Room 102

Members: Alice, Bill, Dawn, Ed, Hamp, Kathy G., Katherine H., Jim, Mark S.., Martha, Nancy K., Robin, Sue Ellen, Steve, Terry, Tim S., Joe S., Tom S.

I. Corrections to minutes from last meeting on June 27, 2005?

II. Old Business:

• Cluster projects:
  • "Condo" Cluster:
    • NOW FIVE researchers participating: Leo Zhigilei (lz2n) - 8 nodes w/ ETF $;
      Jeff Shabanowitz/Dina Bai (Chemistry)- 8 nodes; Phil Parrish/Rich Gregory - 4 nodes;
      Matt Neurock - 4 nodes. New researcher: Avik Ghosh (av7rq) Elec. Engineering faculty - 10 nodes? Is this faculty member for whom Mitch wanted 10 nodes?
    • Outstanding issues:
    • ganglia reports from cedar - (if won't make it crash!)
    • Is Avaki Gateway node setup on Cedar?
    • Air conditiioning and electrical power issues resolved?
    • PBS scheduler groups set up for "condo purchasers"; Katherine getting list of users.
    • PBSPro - priority queuing for paying participants and usage reporting.
  • Aspen & Birch cluster: Upgrade done. Any issues or concerns?
    • How many functioning nodes left on Aspen?
  • All the Linux clusters: Users must change password on blue.unix not on cluster front-end; how do we notify users of this? Change most frequently used password commands (e.g., passwd) to invoke message that users need to change password on blue.unix not on cluster front-end.
  • Oak Cluster: Time line for adding the modules software primarily to make it seamless for IMSL and Java users to move from aspen to oak and make it easier for users to access different versions of the Solaris compilers. (Outstanding from June).
  • Teak Cluster: Any issues or concerns?
• /longtmp
  • Timeline for script to automate checking usage and reminding users. (Hamp & Tim T. to collaborate on this.)
• Linux license server (cluster of three lm1., lm2, & lm3.license).
  Are all research software licenses now migrated off of aix.license onto linux.license server?
• blue.unix upgrade of nodes to new 64-bit nodes and new version of OS. ITC-Transitions CDP is tracking as well.Timeline? We need to test software carefully.
  • Rollout timeline?
  • Will "gather" command/tools still work?
  • Are there other software packages that were node specific (e.g., Lisrel was) that we need to take into account?
• Ganglia web pages: Need to add cedar.itc.
  • Can we get teak and oak clusters separated out from general research computing cluster so can see nodes easily?
  • Is it possible to add athena.itc (SMP)?
    

III. New Business:

• Home Directory upgrade on September 3rd. Iimpacts on all Unix system. Will user quotas increase?
• Want to set up the RCSC Unix boxes as a resource group, rather like the "research" computing resources. We don't need them to be NIS clients, but we would like some way to grant a user access as a block to our machines and later remove that access, something like is done using www.people.virginia.edu, and some method of getting the password information that is a bit more efficient than manual cut and paste.
• Andrew Grimshaw asking for Linux front-end to campus grid project - Ed emailed itc-rescomp about this.
• Ed working with Anita Jones & Andrew Grimshaw on possible one-day seminar on scientific computing over fall break (10/3) and longer course for J-Term.

V. Adjourn by 12:00PM and next meeting

• Next Scheduled Meeting of this group: Monday, October 31st, 10:30 AM in ITC-2015 Ivy Road, Room #102
• Next Scheduled Meeting of ITC ResComp Management team: Monday, September 26th, 10:30 AM in ITC-2015 Ivy Road, Room #220
  
  
  Suggestions, additions, corrections to: Tim Tolson or Alice Howard
  

Go to: ITC Research Computing Committee Home Page