Minutes of the ITC-Research Computing Group Meeting
July 26, 1999 at 10:30 AM in Astronomy 117

Members:Dawn, Dee, Ed, Hamp, Jim J., Mark S., Sue Ellen, Robin, Stan, Tim S., Tim T., Tom S.,
Conveners:Tim T.
In Attendance: Dawn, Ed, Hamp, Mark, Robin, Stan, Tim S., Tim T., Tom
Recorder: Tim T.
This webpage by Tim T.
Next Meeting: August 30 at 10:30 AM in Astronomy 117.


Click here for the agenda from this meeting.

To Dos & Old Business:

Numbers in parenthesis match the numbers on the To-Do Table of April 26, 1999 that we reviewed at this meeting.

Item 1: Orange & Teal Clusters

Hamp said that on Friday, Chip got PBS (Portable Batch System) running under Solaris 2.7, even though the PBS folks say it only runs under 2.6 Will put on SGI's next. Chip will let Ed know when it's ready to test.

Ed has Centurion account (Grimshaw's cluster). They're running PBS on 64 Dec Alphas. He'll do some testing of PBS there and how users could access these.

Item 6: SP Upgrade
Hamp: One switch adapter failing on f2n1 (router for switch connecting nodes); All nodes were upgraded. There's a conflict with the SSA driver and the wide nodes; so the SSA drives are not currently connected to the SP. It's indeterminate if it's resolveable. Will re-evaluate after finish upgrade; which Bill thinks he can finish today (without the SSA nodes). Engineering's SSA adapters are *not* affected.

Item 2: HSM
Hamp said migration of users from maggie/archive to HSM proceeds, about 1/6th of the way, having moved about 40 GB.
Mark asked about issue of PC access?
Hamp thinks it's possible, doesn't think that installing SAMBA will present a risk to the system, but is there a demand? The HSM is set up so the users only have directories, no accounts and no password file.
Hamp: could also to go NFS/SAMBA, the performance is comparable to the Mac's Home Directory.
Tim S. wondered if we have a policy on how much storage space is allowed?
Hamp: no policy to date.
Tim S: Have a new storage space policy for the Toolkit which is stuff over 1 year old goes to the HSM and only X number past semesters allowed.
Hamp: We also need to know to whom we offer space- for example, Alderman Special Collections? or ICPSR data? Alderman had a third to a quarter of maggie's space.
Tim S: We ought to have a threshold and above that you pay for space because we are funded to support research and academic departments.
Tom: We need to consider the storage space that New Media Center offers and how much it charges, as well.
Hamp: There are a few people with multiple GB. Tom S: what about leasing space on the Home Directory? Mark: Same thing, so much for free, then pay.
ToDo> Tim T.: Draft space use policy, circulate to group, then Tim S. can take to directors for approval.

Item 8: Research Computing Support Center
Dawn reported that tenative Grand Opening is mid-October, over Fall Break. The New Media Center is suppose to be moving out mid-September into the Robinson Media Center in Clemons.


Item 9: Research Advisory Committees
Tim S. talked about the Preliminary Technology Proposal to "Create an Advanced Computational Support Center for Science and Engineering". This is a preliminary budget proposal for the next biennum budget.

Meeting adjourned at 11:30, next meeting August 30, 1999, 10:30 AM =====================

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by Tim F.J. Tolson