Transcript Brunel Site Report

SIRE Group
Brunel University,
Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Uxbridge,
UB8 3PH, UK
Dr Peter R Hobson C.Phys M.Inst.P
SIRE Group computing
• HEP computing plus image processing and digital
holography.
• About 15 local users
• GRID computing for particle physics and other
computationally intensive applications.
• Windows 2000 or RH 7 or 8 on the desktop
• Email, networking provided centrally (Unix
servers at present but migrating to full W2000)
• No PPARC funded system management effort
HEPSYSMAN, 28 April 2003
SIRE Group facilities
• Small amount of desktop power
• New cluster being installed (SRIF 1) in our new
“BITLab”
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64 Dual hyper threading Xeon nodes
2 Gb memory per node
Dual 1-Gbit network connectivity between nodes
Part of the London Distributed Tier-2 centre
• Recent success with SRIF 2 funds
– 128 more nodes to come
• All cluster computing resources shared with a
number of other non-HEP users.
HEPSYSMAN, 28 April 2003
Local challenges
• All networking controlled centrally
– Presents a real challenge for GRID computing,
videoconferencing etc.
– Centrally managed firewall
– Central responsibility for certificate authentication
• Efficient and flexible management of the Tier 2
– Mixed user community with special needs
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HEP computing
3D visualisation
Video walls
Ray tracing engines etc.
– Coordination of new resources
HEPSYSMAN, 28 April 2003
Summary
• Major changes taking place
• Huge (for us) increase in computing power
and management complexity
• No increase in funded personnel
• New mixed user environment
• Changes in the central computing provision
• Our “BITLab” is a University flagship
project, so it had better work well this
Autumn!
HEPSYSMAN, 28 April 2003