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See our general page on upgrading clusters for current list of considerations regarding upgrading Matrix.

Ticket number for procurement-related 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 proposed by ChemIT, to work through with Czarek:
    • SFS
    • 2. NAS
    • Dedicated, separate server
    • 1. In head node.

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. 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 required, ChemIT still recommends EZ-Backup.

Decision 3: Head node specifications

Implementation questions:

Decision 4: Who gets "root" access?

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)

Other notes

Refer to the "Scheraga - Cluster Backup Choices" page, created following the Fall 2013 Matrix failure.

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