Minutes of the
ITC-Research Computing Standing Committee
Meeting on
Members:
Alice, Bill, Brian, Dawn, Ed, Hamp, Kathy G.,
Katherine H., Jim, Mark S., Martha, Michael, Robin, Sue Ellen, Steve, Terry,
Tim S., Tom S.
Attending: Alice,
Bill, Ed, Hamp, Kathy G., Katherine H., Jim, Mark S.,
Martha, Robin, Steve, Tim S., Tim T.
Chair:
Tim T.
Recorder:
I. Corrections to minutes from the last meeting
on
1. Item
II.4 (concerning network security of workstations in the Unixlabs) was corrected to remove
reference to using the SMBClient which the lab workstations
do not support. Those minutes are available
at: http://holmes.acc.virginia.edu/ResNotes/passprotected/itc-rescomp.min04-28-03.html
II. Ongoing Discussion Topics:
1. Aspen
Xeon Cluster (Birch) rollout:
·
Bill has amended the PBSPro
script to echo cluster name and temp space location.
·
Need for additional disk space on both clusters:
there was discussion about the various options for providing users
with more disk space. Should we add file servers and allow users to
have their “own longtmp” as a staging space? Or should we add a large drive to each front-end
and make a bigger “bigtmp”? The latter would be less expensive. There are also policy aspects to this – do we
want to essentially give some users more home directory space? No, whatever we do, it needs to be treated as
a temporary space (like longtmp) and called longtmp. We will explore
the options and compare the costs.
·
Need to upgrade Totalview
to support the Intel compiler – but this would require fixing a kernel problem.
There was discussion about the pros/cons
of having a custom kernel vs. staying with the RedHat
kernel – perhaps RedHat will come out with a kernel
that fixes this problem. We decided
to wait awhile – but go ahead with the cluster rollout since the cluster can
be used without Totalview – even though we do want
to encourage users to debug using Totalview.
·
Intel vs. PGI compilers: After the Xeon cluster goes public, Katherine and Ed can begin testing and comparison to
see if we can settle on just one.
·
Testing and support of test users – any other
outstanding issues or concerns? Close
to rollout. Katherine trying to get
VASP code working on Birch cluster.
2. Aspen
AMD Cluster (aspen): Hamp will set a date (after the end of the spring semester)
for a day of downtime to upgrade the AMD cluster.
3.
SP Migration: Have been in
contact with some users – working with Lester Andrews and Gaussian users. Will send an e-mail to all
current SP users when we have announced the availability of the Xeon cluster.
III. New Topics:
1. The
2.
It was decided to have a May meeting on Monday, May 19, at