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.,
Steve, Terry, Tim S., Tom S.
I.
Corrections to minutes
from the last meeting on September 29
None.
II. Ongoing Discussion Topics:
1.
Reminder that the SP is scheduled for retirement on
· Will contact the active users (19 since June, and 22 users from
9/02 – 9/03).
2. Faculty
Advisory committee for Research Computing
·
Reminder:
ACAC is meeting conjointly with UCIT during this fall – our aim is
to talk with them in the spring.
3. Crick
to be split in two with half behind the more secure network in Carruthers
·
Firewall is being tested next week
·
Crick to house patient data sets so has to
be behind a firewall – but do not need the whole 4 processor machine for this
– thus the split
·
Related item: Tim’s group is looking for a policy statement
for researchers about HIPAA, state regulations, etc. Jim thinks we need to do the same as the hospital
– Mark found a public HSC statement about HIPAA and privacy – also Shirley
has a document about what HIPAA covers.
4. E-school
Linux cluster rollout progress report and setup/configuration
·
Need to get Jeff to come and give us an update.
Ed thinks they have some testers on it.
(Engineering has known all along that this would not be a quick installation/rollout.)
5.
VPN and IP filtering for FlexLM license daemons Several
vendors are now requiring it, not just ESRI.
·
Hamp can filter by license manager – PC and Mac users can use the VPN
– and we could implement a dedicated license manager machine. Should we explore other alternatives for linux users?
·
There was discussion about applying the filter
for just those vendors that require it – or to do this for all vendors.
·
Also need to clarify what is the “UVA community”?
Would it include
6.
Clustering UnixLab machines
·
Katherine has been testing Globus on hera
and nike and is having troubles with IP tables –
Bill suggests logging.
·
On the horizon – what’s the future of the
Unix lab?
–
There was general discussion about why we
might want to try to cluster the unixlab machines
(to be “cutting edge”? to stay up with others who are experimenting with Globus, Condor-G?) – and to weigh
our efforts against possible benefits.
–
What else might we do with that space? Will turn on console logging and see who’s using
it now.
III. New Topics:
7.
PBS Pro upgrade on Birch to get in version sync with
·
This will need a downtime – so wait until
end of semester.
8. Aspen
Cluster: When can 200GB disk be
installed on the front-end? Replacement here? When to
schedule downtime to install it?
·
Bill thinks that maybe it needs a better cable;
downtime to add the disk is scheduled for 11/24.
9.
Ganglia/Gmond usage page switched over ResComp pages links.
Making “ganglia” graphics work for UnixLab
computers?
·
Switched over and looks good so far.
10.
The “Digital Services ‘One-Stop’ Planning Committee” of Library and ITC
folks is exploring how digital/technology support and services are offered in
Library and ITC – report due before Christmas.
11. Growing
concern about how much downtime (planned and unplanned) Clusters have, how
frequently there are glitches, problems, etc., that create problems or crashed
jobs for users or extended downtimes.
How can we decrease these and manage expectations better in order to avoid
the Clusters becoming afflicted with the “maggie
syndrome”?
·
It’s a user credibility issue. We knew that Aspen/AMD was not robust before
we got it.
·
Bill said that most of these failures are
traced to DIMMs failing – and
12.
Tom reported that the ACHS and Research web pages are going to be
merged.
Next meeting is Monday, November 24, at
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