CLAN A High Performance, Dual Operating System Compute Server Based on Intel Processors

1. CLANA High Performance, Dual Operating System Compute Server Based on Intel Processors Kathy Benninger John Kochmar Mike Levine Juan Leon Paul Nowoczynski J. Ray Scott Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center

2. History/Background Design Issues Prototype Software Production Cluster Research Areas Agenda

3. The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center • Past — One of four NSF-fundedcenters in the “Centers” program • Present — • Active in providing high-end cycles for science research • Advancing Computational Science • Education

4. PSC, continued • Organizational unit of Carnegie Mellon University • Joint operation by CMU, University of Pittsburgh, and Westinghouse Electric Company • www.psc.edu

5. PSC Partners • Department of Energy • National Institutes of Health • NIST • National Science Foundation • State of Pennsylvania • Industrial Affiliates

6. PSC Workstation Cluster History • 1988 - VAX 2000 • 1992 - Cluster • Digital MIPS-based workstations • 1994 - SuperCluster • Digital Alpha-based workstations

7. Intel Project History • Spring, 1997Intel Technology for Education 2000 Grant • Microsoft Support • Prototype Hardware, 1998 • Production Hardware, 1999

8. Design Issues • SMP vs Single CPU • Quad vs Dual • Linux vs NT • Why pick!! • Management • emphasize build replication • NT Screen-centric design • Interconnect -VIA Spec on the horizon First study the enemy. Seek weakness. -- Romulan Commander, stardate 1709.2

9. Prototype • Dual Boot • Replication • MPI • Early Demonstrations • Scientist Development Systems

10. Software • Base System • NT 4.0 • Linux RH 5.2 Kernel 2.2.2 • Language Support • Digital Visual Fortran (NT) • MS Visual C/C++ (NT) • File system • NFS • SAMBA Madness has no purpose. Or reason. But it may have a goal. -- Spock, stardate 3088.7

11. Software, cont • Message Passing • MPI • PVM • NT threads • Scheduler • Compaq Batch Scheduler • PBS • (more at the end…)

12. Management • Software Installation • Replication • Configuration Control • User Administration • Verification • snmp / Java applet • Remote Management Conquest is easy. Control is not. -- Kirk

13. SNMP Applet

14. Production Cluster • Hardware Delivered January 1999 • Installation in Mellon Institute Building We Klingons believe as you do -- the sick should die. Only the strong should live.

15. Cluster Hardware Detail • Quad 400MHz Pentium II Xeon Processor • 512KB L2 cache • 1GB memory • One 18GB disk • Rackmounted cases, 7 PCI slots: 4 64-bit, 3 32-bit • Dell Remote Assistant card version 2.0 • 14/32X SCSI CD-ROM • Intel EtherExpress PRO/100B PCI fast Ethernet LAN card • (RAID SCSI adapter -- not fully utilized yet)

16. Cluster Hardware Detail (cont’d) • Redundant hot swap power supply • Redundant hot swap cooling and CPU fans • 17" monitor • Keyboard with integrated trackball and buttons • Two cascaded 8-port APEX PC Solutions KVM switches • Intel Fast Ethernet switch

18. Production Cluster Architecture

19. Users • Yang Wang - LSMS • John Urbanic - Performance • Mike Kopko - Sloan Sky Search • Marcela Madrid - Amber • Dave Yaron - Organic Displays • Nick Nystrom - Games • Westinghouse CNFD A little suffering is good for the soul. -- Kirk, stardate 1514.0

20. Early Performance

21. Research Areas • Scheduling in mixed OS environment • “mpi” aware scheduling • PBS port to NT • CBS Sentinel • Genius • not LSF • Usage Accounting • scheduling support • Interconnect • Giganet

22. Research Areas, cont. • Data Issues • Database/Data Mining • Shared File System • Parallel File System • Middleware • Java • CORBA • Agents/aglets Oracle 8i ?

23. Plans(Run-Away Train) • National Institutes of HealthBiomedical Cluster WorkshopJune 1999 • 40 more CPU’s • quads?

24. Thank you!