See our general page on upgrading clusters for current list of considerations regarding upgrading Matrix.
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See also
Ticket numbers for email conversations
- INC000001055288
Decisions required before purchase
Note: Order must be $5,000 or larger to not pay "overhead". Therefore, buy parts, especially small ones, together. (And a single purchase is better than multiple, $5,000+ purchases.)
Decisions made
Compute nodes
NOTE: Must finalize quantity (and final, final specs) after all other decisions are made and priced.
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INC000001223799
Scheraga - Matrix testing Phase 2 (//all// researchers confirming their applications)
Created 10/15/2014, Wednesday)
- INC000001120391
- Planning the implementation, and for more generic issues with the new Matrix and related processes.
- Created 6/6/14, Friday)
REMINDER to ChemIT staff: Just put one of these number in the Subject line, and send message as ChemIT and to ChemIT (BCC if fine). That's it!
N.B. Deprecated (now old) tracking numbers
- Tracking number that was used for the spec'ing and ordering phase: INC000001055288
- Tracking number that was used for the Phase 1 software testing, with 7 initial software testers: INC000001202826
Resources
Information ChemIT needs to keep track up, for reference
See sub-pages
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Decision 1: Storage of users' data
Where should users' data be located?
- Current answer: Hard drive RAID array in the head node.
- Choices identified by ChemIT, to work through with Czarek:
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Choice to provision users' data storage:
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Pro
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Con
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Notes
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Within the head node
(status quo)
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Sunk cost: Pay once and it lasts at least through warranty period, probably longer (no monthly costs)
Known technology and proven performance.
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May need to over-provision (pay extra up-front), speculating on future demands. Invest more now to reduce downtime due to future upgrade.
Depended on same sub-systems, so off-site backup (such as EZ-Backup) is critically important.
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SFS
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Fee based: Get only what you need.
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Fee based: Monthly costs.
Must confirm: Meets Matrix's performance needs?
Includes off-site disaster-recovery backups.
Can include versioning (uses 20% of the space).
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Used pervasively in Chemistry research, with versioning turned on for all instances.
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NAS
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Must confirm: Meets Matrix's performance needs?
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Dedicated, separate file server
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Oliver not willing to have ChemIT set up and run?
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Decision 2: Backups
How should Matrix be backed up?
Answer is DEPENDENT on Decision 1.
- Must include capacity to restore OS, applications and configurations, and users' data.
- Current answer: Cornell CIT's EZ-Backup.
- Details: See "Scheraga - Cluster backup choices" for data informing this original decision (created following the Fall 2013 Matrix failure)
- Choices proposed by ChemIT, to work through with Czarek:
- TBA: Backup may be included in options considered for Decision 1.
- If still required, ChemIT still recommends EZ-Backup.
- TBA: Backup may be included in options considered for Decision 1.
Decision 3: Head node specifications
The head node specifications is DEPENDENT on Decision 1 (and maybe Decision 2).
- Size decision
- 1U is cheapest, and fine if don't need to hold lots of drives.
- 2U is more expensive, but can hold more drives.
Considerations for upgrade (info-gathering phase)
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Implementation decisions (for after purchase decisions!)
Storage-related
For each question:
- Current answer:
- Proposed by ChemIT:
- Proposed by Czarek: