See our general page on upgrading clusters for current list of considerations regarding upgrading Matrix.
Ticket number for procurement-related email conversations
See also
Ticket numbers for email conversations
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 this one of these number in the Subject line, and send message as ChemIT and to ChemIT (BCC if fine). That's it!
N.B. For Deprecated (now old) tracking numbers
- Tracking number that was used for the spec'ing and ordering phase
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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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- : 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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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: