Continuation of cyberinfrastruture reports from FY2006
Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) on pegasus
In FY2007, CISL successfully negotiated with IBM to extend the support contracts for its two Linux cluster systems pegasus and lightning (lightning provides warm failover for pegasus) through the end of FY2008. The pegasus cluster runs two mesoscale forecast models in the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS)—MM5 and WRF—as well as testing a polar version of WRF. The latter, Polar WRF, contains modifications to better represent conditions over the high latitudes and extensive ice sheets, and testing on pegasus has shown it to be an improvement over the regular WRF in Antarctica. Over the past year, Polar WRF has been implemented in AMPS.
CISL staff will continue to operate pegasus in normal operational mode through the end of FY2008.
This project is made possible through funding from the NSF Office of Polar Programs in collaboration with the Byrd Polar Research Center of the Ohio State University.
LSF deployment
In FY2007, CISL staff completed work on the new batch system accounting database. This centralized MySQL database provides a consolidated repository of all production supercomputer batch system accounting data generated by Platform Computing's Load Sharing Facility (LSF). In addition to designing and creating the new database, CISL software engineers developed new tools and processes to automatically clean and load the accounting data into the database at multiple intervals throughout the day.
During this year's blueice Breakthrough Science (BTS) campaign, CISL staff mined the database to produce daily usage reports. These reports were then used to identify and provide assistance to the scientific researchers who were having difficulty getting their code to run properly on the new supercomputer. Also in FY2007, CISL has also configured a direct interface from the statistical package R to the database to further facilitate complex problem resolution, scheduler optimization, and data analysis.
In FY2008, CISL will deploy LSF on bluefire, the new IBM POWER6 cluster, and integrate its data into the consolidated system accounting database.
This project is made possible through NSF Core funding.
Fiber installation along bike path between two campuses
This project was successfully completed and is fully operational. Networking projects are supported by UCAR Communications Pool indirect funds.
Cabling Foothills Lab Building 0
This project was successfully completed and is fully operational. Networking projects are supported by UCAR Communications Pool indirect funds.
Storage Area Network (SAN) deployment for CDP/ESG
In FY2007, DSG plans to make data available on our SAN to TeraGrid users via a web interface for downloading datasets formatted specifically for popular models used today. Changes in our existing infrastructure will make these data available to a broader user community at much higher transfer speeds.
The SAN is supported by NSF Core funding.
CISL portal
The CISL portal was enhanced in FY2007 to report additional accounting information. This portal has achieved production status and is now fully operational. For FY2008, the CISL portal will be maintained but not upgraded. Future development will occur as needs arise, most likely in the areas of reporting, supercomputer status, and data entry delegation.
The CISL portal is supported by NSF Core funding.