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A list of considerations when buying a new cluster, or adding to an existing cluster. Also applies to other high performance computing (HPC) systems.

General

Deployed, or simply iIdeas or options which would required further study

Notes

Software

ChemIT: OS, the cluster's software "stack", and core applications.
Researchers: Their applications, configurations, scripts, sharing, etc.
Maintenance and updates, including scheduling.

See Roles and responsibilities for clusters managed by ChemIT.

Backup

EZ-Backup service
Local, on head node: Copies and/ or sync'ed
Local, off head node: : Copies and/ or sync'ed
Using SFS, which itself has versioning. And price included backups with EZ-Backup.

Not mutually exclusive.
If you pull unique data off quickly, investing in backup diminishes.

Head nodes and compute nodes

Ensure contemporary head node, taking into account it's age, warranty, and ease of replacement with a compute node (unique attributes, including hard drive bays).

 

Data storage

Storage required for headnode and computational use (short term), including job store and user accounts.
Longer term storage needs, in which a file server may meet needs better. Examples include the SFS service (NFS is an option there).

Storing large amounts of data make restores harder, riskier, and more time-consuming. Storing large amounts of data needing backups will cost more than smaller amounts of data.
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