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.)
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:
Choice to provision users' data storage: | Pro | Con | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Within the head node | Sunk cost: Pay once and it lasts at least through warranty period, probably longer (no monthly costs) | May need to over-provision (pay extra up-front), speculating on future demands. Invest more now to reduce downtime due to future upgrade. |
|
SFS | Fee based: Get only what you need. | Fee based: Monthly costs. | Used pervasively in Chemistry research, with versioning turned on for all instances. |
NAS |
| Must confirm: Meets Matrix's performance needs? |
|
Dedicated, separate file server |
| Oliver not willing to have ChemIT set up and run? |
|
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.
- 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
Implementation questions:
Decision 4: Who gets "root" access?
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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Implementation decisions (for after purchase decisions!)
Storage-related
For each question:
- Current answer:
- Proposed by ChemIT:
- Proposed by Czarek:
Where should applications be installed and configured?
Where is "temp" (not backed up) data located?
- Current answer:
- Proposed by ChemIT:
- Proposed by Czarek:
Decisions made
Compute nodes
NOTE: Must finalize quantity (and final, final specs) after all other decisions are made and priced.
4/14/14. Czarek: It looks like the slowest cpu E5-2620v2 2.1GHz has the best price performance ratio but anyway I would not buy the slowest cpu. Right now in Gdansk we are buying 10 servers and we decided to go for 10-core cpus E5-2670v2 2.5Ghz (20 cores per node). As in matrix in Gdansk we have only slow interconnect between nodes and some programs can run efficiently only on single node so more cores per node gives for such program advantage. Other programs both in Gdansk and on matrix just need the highest possible total performance and exchange very little data between nodes so than number of cores is not important. What about space restriction ? Is it better to buy smaller number of faster nodes ?
Other expenses (under $2,700)
NOTE: Not awaiting major decision, only slight shifts in costs as other decisions are made. We welcome questions or concerns, of course.
Networking (~$1,500)
- 1 switch (Cisco SG300-52; ~$750)
- Network cabling (price dependent on above decisions. Expect well under $1K)
Power (~$700)
- UPS (APC SMC1500-2U; $500; for head node only)
- 2-3 PDUs (power distribution units; a.k.a. power strips; $100 each)
- Qty depends on above decisions (amperage calculations)
Rack (~$500)
- $500
Considerations for upgrade (info-gathering phase)
- Buying or adding to a cluster (with Matrix-specific notes)
Other notes
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